ABSTRACT
Background: bronchiolitis is a common lung infection in young children and infants. Bronchiolitis is almost always caused by a virus. Typically, the peak time for bronchiolitis is during the winter months. During covid pandemic, the incidence of bronchiolitis had drastically decreased but this winter, cases of this airway inflammation increased and were more severe. Objective(s): to study the prevalence of bronchiolitis during the winter season and describe its epidemiology, clinical features and outcome. Method(s): retrospective study in a general pediatric ward from november 2021 till january 2022. Result(s): we collected 207 cases admitted for bronchiolitis, in compraison with 162 cases in 2020. Le The hospitalization peak was in november 2021 (36.7%). The sex ratio was 1.43. The mean age was 88 days, the younger than 3 months represented 69.5% of cases. A viral contat was noted in 84.5% of cases. The bronchiolitis was mild in 20.2% of cases, moderate in 57.9% of cases and severe in 21.7% of cases. RSV was isolated in 25 case, Influenza A in 20 cases, viral co-infection was noted in 14 cases while bacterial co-infection was observed in 25 patients. Oxygenotherapy was indicated in 64.7% of patients with a mean duration of 5.6 days. Twenty-two patients were transferred in ICU with the use of non-invasive ventilation in 14 cases and mecahnical ventilation in 13 cases. The mean hospital stay was about 6.7 days. Conclusion(s): although the decrease of the incidence of bronchiolitis during covid 19 pandemic, an important incerease in incidence and intensity of this airway pathology was noted after the 4th wave, explained by the loss of the collective immunity in the younger infants less than 3 months.