Respiratory Viruses in Pediatric Patients with Suspected COVID-19 at the Early Stages of the Pandemic: A Single-center Experience

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to report the respiratory tract viruses we detected in the respiratory polymerase chain reaction (PCR) samples taken from patients admitted to the Pediatric Emergency Service with suspicion of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) in the early stages of the pandemic, in addition to the clinical course, and laboratory features of the disease caused by these identified respiratory tract viruses. Method: All upper respiratory tract PCR samples were taken simultaneously from patients suspected of having COVID-19 disease. All pediatric patients who came to the Pediatric Emergency Department with suspicion of COVID-19 disease between March and June 2020 were included in the study. We retrospectively compared the laboratory findings, clinical manifestations, and primary outcomes of the children aged between 1 month and 18 years infected with respiratory viruses (RVs) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus.