Changes in paediatric respiratory infections at a UK teaching hospital 2016–2021; impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Objective: To describe the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the incidence of paediatric viral respiratory tract infection in Oxfordshire, UK. Methods: Data on paediatric Emergency Department (ED) attendances (0–15 years inclusive), respiratory virus testing, vital signs and mortality at Oxford University Hospitals were summarised using descriptive statistics. Results: Between 1-March-2016 and 30-July-2021, 155,056 ED attendances occurred and 7,195 respiratory virus PCRs were performed. Detection of all pathogens was suppressed during the first national lockdown. Rhinovirus and adenovirus rates increased when schools reopened September-December 2020, then fell, before rising in March-May 2021. The usual winter RSV peak did not occur in 2020/21, with an inter-seasonal rise (32/1,000 attendances in 0–3 yr olds) in July 2021. Influenza remained suppressed throughout. A higher paediatric early warning score (PEWS) was seen for attendees with adenovirus during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic (p = 0.04, Mann-Witney U test), no other differences in PEWS were seen. Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 caused major changes in the incidence of paediatric respiratory viral infection in Oxfordshire, with implications for clinical service demand, testing strategies, timing of palivizumab RSV prophylaxis, and highlighting the need to understand which public health interventions are most effective for preventing respiratory virus infections

Changes in paediatric respiratory infections at a UK teaching hospital 2016-2021; impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Objective: To describe the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the incidence of paediatric viral respiratory tract infection in Oxfordshire, UK. Methods: Data on paediatric Emergency Department (ED) attendances (0-15 years inclusive), respiratory virus testing, vital signs and mortality at Oxford University Hospitals were summarised using descriptive statistics. Results: Between 1-March-2016 and 30-July-2021, 155,056 ED attendances occurred and 7,195 respiratory virus PCRs were performed. Detection of all pathogens was suppressed during the first national lockdown. Rhinovirus and adenovirus rates increased when schools reopened September-December 2020, then fell, before rising in March-May 2021. The usual winter RSV peak did not occur in 2020/21, with an interseasonal rise (32/1,000 attendances in 0-3yr olds) in July 2021. Influenza remained suppressed throughout. A higher Paediatric Early Warning Score (PEWS) was seen for attendees with adenovirus during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic (p=0.04, Mann-Witney U test), no other differences in PEWS were seen. Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 caused major changes in the incidence of paediatric respiratory viral infection in Oxfordshire, with implications for clinical service demand, testing strategies, timing of palivizumab RSV prophylaxis, and highlighting the need to understand which public health interventions are most effective for preventing respiratory virus infections.</p

Construction of BAC and BIBAC libraries and their applications for generation of SSR markers for genome analysis of chickpea, Cicer arietinum L.

Large-insert bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) libraries, plant-transformation-competent binary BAC (BIBAC) libraries, and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers are essential for many aspects of genomics research. We constructed a BAC library and a BIBAC library from the nuclear DNA of chickpea, Cicer arietinum L., cv. Hadas, partially digested with HindIII and BamHI, respectively. The BAC library has 14,976 clones, with an average insert size of 121 kb, and the BIBAC library consists of 23,040 clones, with an average insert size of 145 kb. The combined libraries collectively cover ca. 7.0× genomes of chickpea. We screened the BAC library with eight synthetic SSR oligos, (GA)10, (GAA)7, (AT)10, (TAA)7, (TGA)7, (CA)10, (CAA)7, and (CCA)7. Positive BACs were selected, subcloned, and sequenced for SSR marker development. Two hundred and thirty-three new chickpea SSR markers were developed and characterized by PCR, using chickpea DNA as template. These results have demonstrated that BACs are an excellent source for SSR marker development in chickpea. We also estimated the distribution of the SSR loci in the chickpea genome. The SSR motifs (TAA) n and (GA) n were much more abundant than the others, and the distribution of the SSR loci appeared non-random. The BAC and BIBAC libraries and new SSR markers will provide valuable resources for chickpea genomics research and breeding (the libraries and their filters are available to the public at http://hbz.tamu.edu )