High burden of acute respiratory tract infections leading to hospitalization at German pediatric hospitals: fall/winter 2022-2023.

PURPOSE: Given reduced immunity levels for seasonally occurring respiratory infections and the experience of an unusually early, severe wave of RSV infections during 2021, a preexisting clinician-led reporting system (CLRS) was updated to prospectively monitor the anticipated high burden of respiratory infections (ARI) in German pediatric hospitals during fall/winter 2022-2023. METHODS: From September 13, 2022 through March 31, 2023, children hospitalized with ARI as a primary diagnosis were monitored via a national CLRS established by the German Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (DGPI). Once a week, the CLRS collected overall number of new hospital admissions, ARI-related admissions according to pathogen (SARS-CoV-2, RSV, influenza, and other), plus number of patients admitted to ICU with ARI as a primary diagnosis. RESULTS: With a high participation among children's hospitals across Germany (22.8%), 76 centers submitted 1,053 survey reports. ARI-related hospital admissions showed a steep rise starting in late September 2022 and reached their highpoint in early December 2022 (50.1% of all admissions). In parallel, the average number of newly admitted patients (aNA) with RSV (3.6) peaked, as did those with influenza (2.1) one week later. The average highpoint of ARI patients on ICU (aICU) (2.9) was reached shortly thereafter. Again, RSV (1.6) und influenza (1.2) were predominant pathogens. CONCLUSION: In fall/winter 2022-2023, German hospitals reported a sharp increase in patients with ARIs. While RSV and influenza represented the greatest proportion of ARI, SARS-CoV-2 played a less significant role. Systematic, dynamic collection of ARI data is critical for assessing real burdens on the health care system.

FamilyCoviDD19: results of a cross-sectional study-long-term outcomes of infected and uninfected household members.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to compare long-term physical and mental health outcome between SARS-CoV-2 infected and uninfected household members to differentiate between infection-related and pandemic-related outcomes after about two and a half years of the pandemic. Furthermore, possible differences in the outcome of adults and children and young people (CYP) were of interest. DESIGN: In a cross-sectional study design, we compared the long-term physical and mental health outcome of between infected and uninfected as well as between adult and CYP (household members). SETTING: The FamilyCoviDD19 study-a serology study in households-was initially conducted to evaluate virus transmission in a close contact setting focusing on households with children and adolescents in Germany. At least 1 year after initial infection in the respective households, a follow-up took place in which the prevalence and type of possible long-term consequences were surveyed on the basis of self-reported information on physical and mental health. PARTICIPANT: In this study, a total of 533 household members of 146 families participated and responded to our survey, including 296 (55.5%) adults and 237 (44.5%) CYP. RESULT: The difference in frequency of reported symptoms between infected and uninfected individuals was very moderate, suggesting that the vast majority of reported symptoms were not attributable to a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, regardless of age and infection status, this study showed overall high rates of self-reported symptoms with CYP having fewer long-term sequelae than adults one year after infection. Furthermore, over 50% of those reporting symptoms were not affected in their daily life, with CYPs reporting an even lower percentage compared with adults. CONCLUSION: CYP are at reduced risk not only to develop symptomatic infection or severe disease courses (previous analyses) but also to develop infection-associated long-term sequelae (this study). Independent of infection CYP reported high rates of neurocognitive, pain, somatic and mood symptoms, which makes the influence of the pandemic itself-including pandemic control measures-decisive.

Burden of Pediatric SARS-CoV-2 Hospitalizations during the Omicron Wave in Germany.

(1) Background: When the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 first emerged in Germany in January 2022, data on related disease severity among children and adolescents were not yet available. Given Omicron's high transmissibility, the ability to assess its impact on admission and hospitalization rates in children's hospitals is critical for the purpose of understanding the scope of its burden on the German healthcare system. (2) Methods: From 24 January 2022 to 31 July 2022, SARS-CoV-2 cases admitted to German pediatric hospitals were monitored via a national, clinician-led reporting system (CLRS) established by the German Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (DGPI). Cases treated on general wards and intensive care units, as well as patient age and the need for respiratory support, were recorded. (3) Results: From January to July 2022, a median of 1.7 cases (range 0.4-3) per reporting pediatric hospital per day was hospitalized in general wards, whereas a median of 0.1 cases (range 0-0.4 cases) was admitted to intensive care units. Of all hospitalized patients, 4.2% received respiratory support. (4) Conclusions: Despite the high incidence rates documented in connection with the Omicron variant in early 2022, the number of pediatric hospital admissions, and especially the number of cases with the need for intensive care treatment and respiratory support due to symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, remained relatively low. Higher Omicron incidence rates had only a modest impact on SARS-CoV-2-related admissions and hospitalization in German children's hospitals.