Methodology
In this retrospective study, 1614 hospitalizations of children aged up
to 12 years at Hospital São Paulo (HSP) were tested for COVID -19 using
the polymerase chain reaction method (RT-PCR) from March 2020 to
December 2022. Hospitalization data were collected regarding the main
reason for hospitalization, underlying medical conditions, indicators of
severe disease (length of hospitalization, ICU stay and death), viral
load (Ct value), cases of hospital readmission within 6 months, and
variant wave.
Coinfection with other respiratory viruses during this period was
detected by molecular testing (RT-PCR) for human metapneumovirus (hMPV),
human respiratory tract infection (hRSV), influenza A (FLU -A) and B
(FLU -B), adenovirus (HAdV), and human rhinovirus (HRV). Simple logistic
regression models (for categorical and numerical variables), linear
regression and Pearson’s chi-square (numerical variables) were used for
statistical analysis.
To evaluate the frequency of this infection in this population, we
categorized the age of patients in the following ranges: < 1
year, 1 -| 2 years, 2 -| 5 years and >
five years.