Instituto de Ciencias Médicas, PO Box 0710-00043, Las Tablas, Los Santos, Panama.
Sección de Epidemiología, Departamento de Salud Pública, Región de Salud de Herrera, Ministry of Health, Chitré, Panama.
BMC Infect Dis. 2021 Jan 9;21(1):43. doi: 10.1186/s12879-020-05720-1.
Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are a worldwide public health problem. It is estimated that up to 80% of cases of ARIs are caused by viruses. In Central America, however, we identified few epidemiologic studies on the main ARI-related viruses in hospitalized children.
This study retrospectively analyzed the clinical charts of patients ages 29 days to 14 years admitted with diagnoses of ARIs in a pediatric reference hospital in central Panama during 2016. The variables analyzed were age, sex, signs, symptoms, and diagnosis at admission. Samples of patients to whom a viral panel was indicated were analyzed via quantitative polymerase chain reaction, qPCR.
The most common virus was respiratory syncytial virus (RSV; 25.9%), followed by influenza A virus (10.6%), rhinovirus (10.6%), parainfluenza type 3 (PIV-3; 8.2%) and adenovirus (5.9%). However, virus detection varied with patient age and season. RSV and Influenza virus were respectively identified mainly during July-November and May-July. All cases of viral co-infection occurred in children < 5-years-old. Both influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 and rhinovirus were detected in all pediatric ages analyzed in this study, unlike RSV and PIV-3, which were only present in children < 5-years-old.
This study analyzed the epidemiological patterns of different respiratory viruses in pediatric patients with ARI from central Panama and found that the prevalence of the specific respiratory viruses identified varied with season and age. The most common viruses were RSV, influenza A, and rhinovirus. There were no reports of human metapneumovirus associated with ARI, which may be explained by the time and geographic location of the study. Knowledge of the local epidemiology of respiratory viruses in tropical countries is helpful in forecasting the peaks of hospitalizations due to ARIs and may help improve prevention efforts aiming at respiratory disease control in these settings.
急性呼吸道感染（ARI）是一个全球性的公共卫生问题。据估计，多达 80%的 ARI 病例是由病毒引起的。然而，在中美洲，我们发现针对住院儿童中主要与 ARI 相关的病毒的流行病学研究很少。
本研究回顾性分析了 2016 年期间中美洲巴拿马一家儿科参考医院因 ARI 住院的 29 天至 14 岁患者的临床病历。分析的变量包括年龄、性别、体征、症状和入院诊断。对有病毒检测指征的患者样本进行定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）分析。
最常见的病毒是呼吸道合胞病毒（RSV；25.9%），其次是甲型流感病毒（10.6%）、鼻病毒（10.6%）、副流感病毒 3 型（PIV-3；8.2%）和腺病毒（5.9%）。然而，病毒检测随患者年龄和季节而变化。RSV 和流感病毒分别主要在 7 月至 11 月和 5 月至 7 月检出。所有病毒合并感染均发生在<5 岁的儿童中。在本研究分析的所有儿科年龄中，均检测到甲型流感（H1N1）pdm09 和鼻病毒，而 RSV 和 PIV-3 仅存在于<5 岁的儿童中。
本研究分析了来自巴拿马中部儿科 ARI 患者中不同呼吸道病毒的流行病学模式，发现所鉴定的特定呼吸道病毒的流行率随季节和年龄而变化。最常见的病毒是 RSV、甲型流感和鼻病毒。没有与 ARI 相关的人偏肺病毒报告，这可能是由于研究的时间和地理位置所致。了解热带国家呼吸道病毒的本地流行病学情况有助于预测因 ARI 导致的住院高峰，并有助于改善这些地区呼吸道疾病控制的预防工作。
