VIRAL RESPIRATORY PATHOGENS AMONG CHILDREN ADMITTED FOR RESPIRATORY TRACT ILLNESSES IN A TERTIARY HOSPITAL

Clinical Research Results Abstract IntroductionRespiratory illnesses like pneumonia, acute bronchiolitis, wheezing, asthma, and upper respiratory tract infections are common diagnoses among children admitted to hospital. Certain viral respiratory pathogens are associated with certain respiratory illnesses like Rhinovirus in asthma and RSV in wheezing and acute bronchiolitis. MethodologyA retrospective data collection from 1st May 2019 until 30th June 2020 in Hospital Tunku Azizah on General Paediatric Ward admission and respiratory virus pathogen were retrieved from the ward census and the microbiology lab census, respectively. ResultsA total of 4567(55.9% of total hospital admission) admissions for respiratory tract illnesses during the 14 months period. Common diagnosis are pneumonia;2490(54.5%), acute bronchiolitis; 595(13.0%), upper respiratory tract infections; 524(11.5%), bronchial asthma; 496(10.9%), wheezing ; 289 (6.3%). The commonest respiratory virus pathogen was Respiratory Syncytial Virus, RSV (276, 81.2%). Other viruses were human metapneumovirus (22, 6.5%) and parainfluenza virus (17, 5.0%). RSV had two peaks between June and September 2019 and between February and April 2020. RSV and human metapneumovirus had positive correlations with pneumonia admission i.e. (0.567, p-value 0.034) and (0.740, p-value 0.002) respectively. Parainfluenza virus positively correlated with acute bronchiolitis(0.763, p-value 0.001) and viral-induced or multi-trigger wheeze(0.533, p-value 0.050). Asthma admission was not found to be related to any viral respiratory pathogen. Discussion/Conclusion:Our findings seem slightly different from other studies, possibly due to pandemic Covid 19 within the study period. Comparing the trend before and during the pandemic may give us a better understanding. However, RSV remained the commonest respiratory virus pathogen before and during the pandemic and was not associated with wheezing or asthma diagnosis. Research Idea Abstract Service Development & Evaluation Abstract Declaration of Interest The investigators declare no conflict of interest. References and Clinical Trial Registry Information 1. Fieldhouse JK, Toh TH, Lim WH, et al. Surveillance for respiratory syncytial virus and parainfluenza virus among patients hospitalized with pneumonia in Sarawak, Malaysia. PLoS One. 2018;13(8):e0202147. Published 2018 Aug 15. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.02021472. Ng KF, Tan KK, Sam ZH, Ting GS, Gan WY. Epidemiology, clinical characteristics, laboratory findings and severity of respiratory syncytial virus acute lower respiratory infection in Malaysian children, 2008-2013. J Paediatr Child Health. 2017;53(4):399-407. doi:10.1111/jpc.13375