Temporal and age distributions of SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses, southeastern France

Objectives: The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic presents a poorly understood epidemiological cycle. We aimed to compare the age and weekly distributions of the five human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, that circulated in southeastern France. Methods: We analyzed all available diagnoses of respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, performed between 09/2013 and 05/2020 at the University Hospital Institute Mediterranee Infection in Marseille, southeastern France. Results: For SARS-CoV-2, positive children <15 years of age represented 3.4% (228/6,735) of all positive cases, which is significantly less than for endemic coronaviruses (46.1%; 533/1,156; p < 0.001). Among 10,026 patients tested for SARS-CoV-2 and endemic coronaviruses in 2020, children <15 years represented a significantly lower proportion of all positive cases for SARS-CoV-2 than for endemic coronaviruses [2.2% (24/1,067) vs. 33.5% (149/445), respectively; p < 0.001]. Epidemic curves for endemic coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2 in 91,722 patients showed comparable bell-shaped distributions with a slight time lag. In contrast, the age distribution of endemic coronaviruses and 14 other respiratory viruses differed significantly compared to that of SARS-CoV-2, which was the only virus to relatively spare children. Conclusions: We observed for SARS-CoV-2 a temporal distribution resembling that of endemic coronaviruses but an age distribution that relatively spares the youngest subjects, who are those the most exposed to endemic coronaviruses. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases.