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.