ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1581815
This article is part of the Research TopicLong-Term Clinical and Epidemiological Perspectives on Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection (PASC)View all 5 articles
Epidemiological Intricacies of Respiratory Pathogens: A Single-Center Study on Infection Dynamics in Beijing, 2023-2024
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Clinical Laboratory, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China
- 2Department of Clinical Laboratory, Affiliated Hospital of inner Mongolia Minzu University, Mongolia, China
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Background: Following China's post-COVID-19 reopening strategy, intermittent small-scale outbreaks of respiratory pathogen infections have been observed in the Beijing region. This single-center study aims to characterize the epidemiological features and co-detection patterns of respiratory pathogens in Beijing, providing a scientific basis for the prevention and control of respiratory infectious diseases.: We performed a retrospective analysis of 19,535 patients undergoing SARS-CoV-2 testing and 12,372 patients screened for six respiratory pathogens， including Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human rhinovirus (HRV), influenza A virus (IAV), adenovirus (ADV), and influenza B virus (IBV)) at Peking University People's Hospital from January 2023 to December 2024. Epidemiological data were systematically collected and analyzed. Results: SARS-CoV-2 positivity rate maintained above 3% throughout the observation period. IAV demonstrated distinct seasonal peaks in March 2023 (41.9%, 52/124), November-December 2023 (24.5%, 119/485 to 21.9%, 208/950), and December 2024 (25.4%, 289/1136). Poly-epidemics of multiple pathogens emerged between October 2023 and April 2024. Pediatric populations showed highest prevalence of MP (21.4%, 158/740), co-detection (15%, 111/740) and ADV (12.7%, 94/740), while adults predominantly exhibited SARS-CoV-2 (35.1%, 674/1920), RSV (15.8%, 304/1920) and IAV (12.3%, 236/1920). Among 324 co-detection cases, MP (130 cases), HRV (117 cases), and IAV (111 cases) were most frequently involved, with MP+HRV (36 cases), MP+IAV (31 cases), and HRV+IAV (23 cases) being the predominant pairwise combinations.Beijing experienced alternating waves of respiratory pathogen epidemics and co-detections during 2023-2024. IAV maintained characteristic winter-spring seasonality, while MP emerged as the predominant pathogen in co-detection events.Distinct pathogen profiles between pediatric and adult populations underscore the necessity for continuous surveillance and age-specific prevention strategies for respiratory infections.
Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, respiratory pathogens, Co-detection, surveillance, diversity
Received: 23 Feb 2025; Accepted: 16 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, huo, liu, feng, li, Li and Su. 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: Ming Su, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China
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