Comparing the incidence of pneumonia in children seen at a Nigerian Teaching Hospital before and during the COVID -19 pandemic

Abstract

Background: Following the outbreak of the new coronavirus (COVID 19) worldwide, many governments across the world including the Nigerian government had to implement measures to curtail the spread of this virus. Such measures included social distancing and personal hygiene which could have also helped to reduce the transmission of pneumonia among other infectious diseases. Objective: To assess the effect of COVID-19 on the incidence of pneumonia in children seen at the Department of Pediatrics, of a Nigerian private University Teaching Hospital. Method: We retrospectively analyzed the data of the patients seen with pneumonia in all the Pediatric units of the Teaching Hospital from April 2019 to March 2020 (pre-pandemic period) and compared it with that of those seen during the COVID-19 pandemic from April 2020 to March 2021. Result: There was a 28% decrease in the total number of children seen in the department from 5,657 in pre-pandemic period to 4,079 in the pandemic period. There was a 17% decrease in the mean number of children seen with pneumonia monthly from 4.92 to 4.08 in the pandemic period. This is despite the relative increase in the incidence rate of pneumonia in children seen from 1.04% in the prepandemic period to 1.2% in the pandemic period. We noted more complications of pneumonia including heart failure and anaemia in the pandemic period (24.5% of cases) than in the pre-pandemic period (15.3% of cases). Conclusion: The incidence of pneumonia in children seems to have increased in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic.