We read with interest the recent article by Terpos et al. 1 They reviewed different hematologic findings and complications of COVID-19. Especially, we are interested in lymphopenia in severe COVID-19 patients, which is a predictor factor of severity and mortality. We aimed to report the occurrence of lymphopenia, lymphocyte subsets, and its impact on ICU mortality in critically ill patients with COVID-19. In this single-center cohort, we included adult patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection by a positive reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) assay of a nasopharyngeal swab, admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Mohammed VIth university hospital of the Marrakech region (Morocco), from March 19, 2020 to May 15, 2020. We collected demographic data, comorbidities, clinical signs at the ICU admission, laboratory findings, chest CT scan if available, outcomes, time from onset of the first symptom to ICU admission, and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores. We expressed continuous variables as medians and interquartile (IQR) ranges or means (standard deviations (SD)), as appropriate, and compared using independent group Student's t test or the Mann-Whitney U test. Categorical variables were described using percentages and compared using the χ 2-test, although Fisher's exact test was used when the data were sparse. We performed univariable to evaluate the risk factors of mortality. The analysis was processed by spss 10.0 for Windows (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). A Pvalue of <.05 was considered statistically significant. Patients CD3+ CD4+ CD8+ CD4+/ CD8+ B cells NK cells Outcome

Sever acute respiratory infections (SARIs) are a public health issue that are common in children and are associated with an important morbidity and mortality rate worldwide. Although SARI are mainly caused by viruses, they are still a cause of antibiotic overuse. The use of molecular methods especially real-time multiplex PCR allowed to detect a wide range of respiratory viruses and their subtype as well as some atypical bacteria. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiology of respiratory pathogens detected in children admitted with SARI and to highlight the role of real-time multiplex PCR in the rapid diagnosis of viral and bacterial SARI. This work is a descriptive observational study from January 2018 to December 2019 including nasopharyngeal secretions collected from 534 children hospitalised in paediatric department. The detection of respiratory viruses and bacteria was performed by the FilmArray® Respiratory Panel. A total of 387 (72.5%) children were tested positive for at least one respiratory pathogen, and 23.3% of them were coinfected with more than one pathogen. Viral aetiology was found in 91.2% (n = 340). The most common viruses detected were HRV (n = 201) and RSV (n = 124), followed by PIV (n = 35) influenza A (n = 29) and human metapneumovirus (n = 27). Bacteria was found in 8.8% (n = 47), and Bordetella pertussis was the most detected. Respiratory syncytial virus and Bordetella pertussis were significantly higher in infants less than 6 months old. The detection of RSV and influenza A presented a pic in winter, and HMPV was statistically significant in spring ( p < 0.01 ). This study described the epidemiology of respiratory pathogens involved in severe respiratory infections in children that were affected by several factors such as season and age group. It also highlighted the importance of multiplex PCR in confirming viral origin, thus avoiding irrational prescription of antibiotics in paediatric settings.

No abstract

Prune belly syndrome (PBS) is a rare congenital anomaly of uncertain etiology. Many associations of PBS with other malformations were previously reported, but only few cases of the association with VACTERL have been described. We report a rare case of a Moroccan new born with PBS and complete VACTERL association. The cause of this association is still unknown, but a common etiology is possible, especially when for the two syndromes, a defect in mesodermal differentiation, in early first trimester, has been suggested.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant decrease in non-COVID-19 respiratory illnesses were observed, suggesting that the implementation of measures against COVID-19 affected the transmission of other respiratory pathogens. The aim of this study was to highlight the changes in the epidemiology of respiratory pathogens in children during the COVID-19 pandemic. All children with Severe Acute respiratory illness admitted to the pediatric departments between January 2018 and December 2021 with negative COVID-19 PCR, were enrolled. The detection of respiratory pathogens was made by the Film Array Respiratory Panel. A total of 902 respiratory specimens were tested. A significantly lower positivity rate during the COVID-19 period was found (p = 0.006), especially in infants under 6 months (p = 0.008). There was a substantial absence of detection of Respiratory Syncytial Virus and Influenza A during the winter season following the outbreak of the pandemic (p < 0.05; p = 0.002 respectively). An inter-seasonal resurgence of Respiratory Syncytial Virus was noted. Human Rhinovirus was detected throughout the year, and more prevalent in winter during COVID-19 (p = 0.0002). These changes could be explained by the impact of the implementation of preventive measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic on the transmission of respiratory pathogens in children.