Herpesvirus infections in children: prevalence, incidence, clinical forms, and management algorithm

Objective. To analyze the incidence, prevalence, and structure of various forms of herpesvirus infections (HVIs) among hospitalized children in Infectious Clinical Hospital No 1 in Moscow for the period 2010–2021. Patients and methods. The study included 6808 children of both sexes aged between 3 months (infants) and 17 years, hospitalized in Infectious Clinical Hospital No 1 with laboratory and clinical confirmed HVIs of moderate and severe course. Clinical, epidemiological, and statistical methods of data processing (Excel, Statistica 10) were used. Results. The most common nosological forms of HVIs, variants of mono-, mixed- and co-infections were analyzed and identified. The predominant diagnosis was infectious mononucleosis, which was detected in 83.40% (5678:6808) of pediatric patients in relation to the total number of children hospitalized with HVIs, and in 82.20% (5757:7003) of the identified HVI nosological forms. The second most frequent diagnosis was herpes simplex, which was detected at a rate of 7.31% among all hospitalized children and 7.11% (498:7003) among all HVI diagnoses, i.e., it occurred as a monoinfection. In third place with a comparable frequency was the diagnosis of CMV infection in 3.92% (275:7003) and sudden exanthema in 3.51% (246:7003). CMV infection was revealed in 2.44% (number of patients 166:6808) of patients, cases of both mono- and mixed infections were detected. Herpes zoster among hospitalized children was rare, in 0.42% of cases. In one case, a combination of HVI and HIV infection was observed. Key words: children, herpesviruses, herpesvirus infections, HSV-1, HSV-2, VZV, EBV, CMV, HHV-6, herpes simplex, varicella, herpes zoster, infectious mononucleosis, cytomegalovirus infection, sudden exanthema