Common pediatric infections returned last winter, study finds

DENVER — Common pediatric infectious diseases returned to or exceeded pre-pandemic levels last winter, according to data presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting.

The study, conducted by researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston, examined the effect that lifting some infection control measures had on the infections during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 winter seasons.

Co-author Jonathan Hatoun, MD, MPH, MS, director of analytics for research and quality at the Pediatric Physicians' Organization at Children's Hospital Wellesley in Massachusetts, said in a presentation that as social interactions increased with in-person classes and other activities, clinicians saw a return of many common infections.

“We were actually some of the first people to publish about the changes that we saw in patients and in practices and among the common infectious illnesses that are being diagnosed,” Hatoun said. “A lot has changed since we first started work on the changes in pediatric infections, and we thought it was time for an update.”

Hatoun and colleagues assessed the changing incidences of commonly treated infectious diseases at 75 primary care offices in Massachusetts by examining electronic health records. The infections included acute otitis media, bronchiolitis, common cold, croup, gastroenteritis, influenza, nonstreptococcal pharyngitis, pneumonia, sinusitis, skin and soft tissue infections, streptococcal pharyngitis and UTIs.

The researchers compared rates from the October to December period of the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 winter seasons to the rates for 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 over the same months.

They found that, under strict infection control during the 2020-2021 winter season, the rates of all infections were decreased, except for UTIs. In the 2021-2022 season, with infection control practices relaxed, rates of bronchiolitis, gastroenteritis and influenza normalized to pre-pandemic levels, and rates of common cold and nonstreptococcal pharyngitis increased significantly to above pre-pandemic levels.

Hatoun said they concluded that the relaxation of strict infection control measures resulted in the return of many, but not all, common pediatric infections.

“These data show that social distancing and masking work, and will reduce transmissible infections,” Hatoun said.