The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on influenza-related hospitalization, intensive care admission and mortality in children in Canada: A population-based study

Groves, Helen E.; Papenburg, Jesse; Mehta, Kayur; Bettinger, Julie A.; Sadarangani, Manish; Halperin, Scott A.; Morris, Shaun K.; Bancej, Christina; Burton, Catherine; Embreé, Joanne; Foo, Cheryl Wong Po; Bridger, Natalie; Morris, Robert J.; Jadavji, Taj; LeBel, Marc; Saux, Nicole Le; Top, Karina A; Tan, Ben; McConnell, Athena; Purewal, Rupeena; Déry, Pierre; Thibeault, Roseline; Vaudry, Wendy; Tran, Dat; Sauvé, Laura; Moore, Dorothy; Lefebvre, Marie-Astrid

doi:10.1016/j.lana.2021.100132

Cited by 31 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Many of the symptoms of patients with COVID-19 are common to those of patients with influenza, typified by predominant cough and fever ( 11 ). In the 2020–2021 winter, when pandemic COVID-19 collided with the flu season for the first time, influenza cases were unprecedentedly scarce and flu-caused hospitalization became the lowest ever recorded in North America, possibly due to the universal COVID-19 measures, such as travel restricting, social distancing, and mask wearing ( 12 , 13 ). Comparatively, COVID-19 infections kept sweeping across the world at the same time, suggestive of its much higher infectivity than influenza.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlation of clinical characteristics between patients with seasonal influenza and patients infected by the wild type or delta variant of SARS-CoV-2

Zhang

Huang

Tao

2022

Front. Public Health

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BackgroundWe compared the clinical characteristics of the patients with COVID-19, infected by the wild type or delta variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), in connection with those of patients with seasonal influenza, all in mild cases.MethodsWe retrospectively studied 245 and 115 patients with mild COVID-19 infected by the wild type and the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, respectively, with their demographic information, medical history, and laboratory data from hospital records, individually compared to 377 patients with mild seasonal influenza, before and after individual treatment.ResultsCompared to the influenza cohort, the COVID-19 cohort or the COVID-19 delta variant cohort demonstrated younger median age, lower male ratio, and shorter duration from disease onset to hospitalization. Hypertension remained the top comorbidity among all cohorts. Based on patients' data upon hospitalization, the correlation of clinical characteristics between patients with influenza and those with the wild-type COVID-19 is greater than that between patients with influenza and those with the delta variant COVID-19. Individual treatment in each viral disease alleviated most hematological parameters, but some compromised biomarkers at the time of hospital discharge revealed persistent renal or myocardial impairment among patients with COVID-19 and influenza in recovery.ConclusionTimely and proper treatment using broad-spectrum antibiotics and antiviral drugs could moderately alleviate the acute viremia and possible bacterial co-infection in patients with mild COVID-19 and influenza, followed by compromised recovery. To prepare for the flu season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, preventive and adequate immunizations of both flu and COVID-19 vaccines, as well as specific therapeutics to effectively reverse viral impairments, are in urgent need.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlation of clinical characteristics between patients with seasonal influenza and patients infected by the wild type or delta variant of SARS-CoV-2

Zhang

Huang

Tao

2022

Front. Public Health

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“…7 There were significant worldwide decreases in influenza activity during 2020 and 2021 after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Such phenomenon was also reported in China for the 2020-2021 season along with a dramatic circulating subtype change with influenza B (Victoria strain) viruses responsible for over 99% cases. 8 Not surprisingly, influenza B viruses (Victoria strain) were detected in the vast majority of children with influenza we treated between the end of 2021 and early 2022.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

A Comparative Study of Severe and Critical Influenza B in Children in the 2021–2022 Winter Season

Li¹,

Liu²,

Lang³

et al. 2022

IJGM

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Influenza B viruses are less common than influenza A viruses in most seasons and cause relatively milder forms of infection that are less studied. We witnessed a dominance of influenza B in Shijiazhuang, China, in the 2021-2022 winter season. In this study, we comparatively investigated the severe and critical influenza B in pediatric patients. Methods: Children who were hospitalized from December 2021 to January 2022 and diagnosed with influenza B were included in this study. Those who tested positive for COVID-19 were excluded. Demographic data, clinical features, underlying medical conditions, laboratory testing results, and treatment outcomes were retrieved and analyzed retrospectively. Disease severity was classified as severe or critical according to Chinese expert consensus on diagnosis and treatment of influenza in children. Results: A significantly greater proportion of patients with critical influenza had extra-pulmonary complications and bacterial coinfections. Children with critical influenza B had substantially higher levels of procalcitonin and lactate dehydrogenase, a markedly higher neutrophil percentage and a significantly lower CD4+ lymphocyte percentage. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that, to effectively manage critical influenza B, therapeutic regimens should consist of organspecific supportive care, antibiotic application if bacterial coinfection is present, and anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting treatments.

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“…Meagre test positivity rates for all respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), were reported from Canada. 4 A recent study from Canada reported no influenza-related hospital admissions or deaths among paediatric cases aged 16 years and below during the 2020/21 influenza season 36 . China witnessed the lowest test positivity rates of respiratory viruses over the past decade during the current pandemic 37 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4 A recent study from Canada reported no influenza-related hospital admissions or deaths among paediatric cases aged 16 years and below during the 2020/21 influenza season. 36 China witnessed the lowest test positivity rates of respiratory viruses over the past decade during the current pandemic. 37 The test positivity was consistently low for influenza and human metapneumovirus with increased detection rates for rhinovirus, coronavirus, adenovirus, RSV, human parainfluenza virus, and Boca virus when the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) were relaxed in China.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on influenza surveillance: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Sabeena¹,

Ravishankar

Robin

2022

Preprint

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Influenza activity was reported to be below the seasonal levels during the COVID-19 pandemic globally. However, during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, the routine real-time surveillance of influenza like illness (ILI) and acute respiratory infection (ARI) was adversely affected due to the changes in priorities, economic constraints, repurposing of hospitals for COVID care and closure of outpatient services. A systematic review and meta-analysis were carried out to assess the pooled proportion of symptomatic cases tested for influenza virus before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 and during the pandemic in 2020/2021. The study was designed based on PRISMA guidelines and the meta-analysis was performed to synthesise the pooled proportion of patients sampled for influenza surveillance before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 and during the pandemic in 2020/21 with 95% confidence interval (CI). The overall pooled proportion of symptomatic cases undergone influenza surveillance before and during the pandemic was 2.38% (95% CI 2.08%-2.67%) and 4.18% (95% CI 3.8%-4.52%) respectively. However, the pooled proportion of samples tested for influenza before the pandemic was 0.69% (95% CI 0.45-0.92%) and during the pandemic was 0.48% (95% CI 0.28-0.68%) when studies from Canada were excluded. The meta-analysis concludes that globally there was a decline in influenza surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic except in Canada.

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The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on influenza-related hospitalization, intensive care admission and mortality in children in Canada: A population-based study

Cited by 31 publications

References 22 publications

Correlation of clinical characteristics between patients with seasonal influenza and patients infected by the wild type or delta variant of SARS-CoV-2

Correlation of clinical characteristics between patients with seasonal influenza and patients infected by the wild type or delta variant of SARS-CoV-2

A Comparative Study of Severe and Critical Influenza B in Children in the 2021–2022 Winter Season

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on influenza surveillance: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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