Temporal and age distributions of SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses, southeastern France.
Int J Infect Dis
; 101: 121-125, 2020 Dec.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-797460
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic presents a poorly understood epidemiological cycle. We aimed to compare the age and weekly distributions of the five human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, that circulated in southeastern France.METHODS:
We analyzed all available diagnoses of respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, performed between 09/2013 and 05/2020 at the University Hospital Institute Méditerranée Infection in Marseille, southeastern France.RESULTS:
For SARS-CoV-2, positive children <15 years of age represented 3.4% (228/6,735) of all positive cases, which is significantly less than for endemic coronaviruses (46.1%; 533/1,156; p < 0.001). Among 10,026 patients tested for SARS-CoV-2 and endemic coronaviruses in 2020, children <15 years represented a significantly lower proportion of all positive cases for SARS-CoV-2 than for endemic coronaviruses [2.2% (24/1,067) vs. 33.5% (149/445), respectively; p < 0.001]. Epidemic curves for endemic coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2 in 91,722 patients showed comparable bell-shaped distributions with a slight time lag. In contrast, the age distribution of endemic coronaviruses and 14 other respiratory viruses differed significantly compared to that of SARS-CoV-2, which was the only virus to relatively spare children.CONCLUSIONS:
We observed for SARS-CoV-2 a temporal distribution resembling that of endemic coronaviruses but an age distribution that relatively spares the youngest subjects, who are those the most exposed to endemic coronaviruses.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Coronavirus
/
SARS-CoV-2
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Humans
/
Infant
/
Middle aged
/
Infant, Newborn
/
Young adult
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Int J Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.ijid.2020.09.1417
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