BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Infectious Diseases
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1498197
Respiratory pathogens detected in children aged <5 years hospitalized with severe respiratory illness, South Africa, 2017
Provisionally accepted
Malefu Moleleki1,2*
Cayla Reddy1,2
Kedibone Ndlangisa1,2Mignon Du Plessis1,2
Orienka Hellferscee1,3Omphe Mekgoe4Sibongile Walaza1,5Stefano Tempia1,5,6Cheryl Cohen1,5Anne Von Gottberg1,2
Nicole Wolter1,2- 1Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis, National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
- 2Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 3Department of Medical Virology, School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 4Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 5School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 6MassGenics, Duluth, Georgia, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The burden of morbidity and mortality of severe respiratory illness (SRI) remains disproportionately high among young children, and in low-and middle-income countries. We used a multi-pathogen respiratory PCR assay to detect pathogens in children aged <5 years hospitalized with SRI.Prospective syndromic surveillance for SRI was performed at two sentinel hospitals in South Africa between January and December 2017. Nasopharyngeal aspirates and sputa were collected and tested using a real-time polymerase chain reaction based TaqMan Array Card (TAC) for the detection of 21 respiratory pathogens. Pathogen detection was compared by age group using the chi-squared test and seasonal frequency analysed.From January through December 2017, 361 children were enrolled and of these, 198 cases with sufficient specimen volume were included in this study. Overall, 189/198 (95%) of the children tested positive for at least one pathogen. Common viruses identified included rhinovirus (65/198; 33%), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (54/198; 27%), adenovirus (34/198; 17%), and enterovirus (28/198; 14%). Common bacteria detected included Haemophilus influenzae (121/198; 61%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (114/198; 58%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (61/198; 31%), Staphylococcus aureus (52/198; 26%), and Acinetobacter baumannii (27/198; 14%).Bacterial detections were high in our study driven by the high detection of S. pneumoniae and H. influenzae. Co-detections of pathogens were common and require clinical evaluation to determine their relevance in clinical management. Further, given the high prevalence of RSV amongst children hospitalized with SRI, there is an urgent need for continued efforts towards access to maternal RSV vaccines and therapeutic interventions such as monoclonal antibodies.
Keywords: Severe respiratory illness, Community-acquired pneumonia, Taqman array card, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Childhood pneumonia
Received: 19 Sep 2024; Accepted: 12 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Moleleki, Reddy, Ndlangisa, Du Plessis, Hellferscee, Mekgoe, Walaza, Tempia, Cohen, Von Gottberg and Wolter. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Malefu Moleleki, Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis, National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), Johannesburg, 2131, Gauteng, South Africa
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.