Objective To study the epidemiological characteristics of mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) in the hospitalized children with acute respiratory tract infections (ARIs).Methods All serum specimens were obtained from those hospitalized children with ARIs in our hospital between Jan 2007 and Dec 2014, and were tested for MP-specific antibodies with passive agglutination method.Then the positive cases with MP infections of different ages, genders, seasons and years were retrospectively analyzed.Results During the study period of 8 years, 4246 cases of MP positive children were detected, with the positive rate of 28.1% for all serum specimens.The MP positive rate of female patients (33.7%) was significantly higher than that of male patients (24.7%) (χ2=142.49, P<0.01).For different age groups, the MP positive rates were increased with age growth, and patients >60 months had the highest rate, with significant differences among them (χ2=1990.49, P<0.01).The annual MP positive rates in turn were 25.1%, 32.6%, 39%, 41%, 19.1%, 7.5%, 27.6% and 31.3%, respectively, and these positive rates also differed significantly (χ2=811.8, P<0.01).In 2009 and 2010, the positive rates were the highest, while in 2011 and 2012 they were the lowest.The positive rates of MP infection for different seasons were 25.3% in spring, 33.7% in summer, 33.1% in autumn and 20.8% in winter, and the positive rates in summer and autumn were significantly higher than those in spring and winter (χ2=212.61, P<0.01).Conclusion In the Jiangyin area, MP is the most common pathogen agent in hospitalized children with ARIs.The MP positive rate would be increased with age growth, and is higher in female than in male.During the study period of 8 years, epidemic outbreaks of MP infection occur with a cycle of 4 years and an interval of 2 years.The prevalence of MP infection may be higher during summer and autumn. |