Epidemiological features of intestinal infection associated with Klebsiella pneumonia in infants and young children

Relevance. Against the background of high epidemic significance of viral diarrhoeas in children in recent decades, with the decreasing incidence of shigellosis, salmonellosis, escherichiosis, the importance of intestinal infections of opportunistic etiology associated with Klebsiella pneumoniae remains. Objective: to study the epidemiological features of acute intestinal infection (AII) associated with K. pneumoniae in infants and young children of St. Petersburg. Materials and Methods. We analyzed the monthly incidence of intestinal monoinfection associated with K. pneumoniae (n=69, group 1) and combined intestinal infection associated with K. pneumoniae and rotavirus (n=19, group 2) in 88 children aged 1 month to 3 years hospitalized in the Intestinal Infections Unit between 2019 and 2021. Verification of the etiology of AII was based on the data of faecal bacteriological and PCR studies with AmpliSens® AII Screen-FL reagents, as well as on the data of serological and immunological methods. Each group had subgroups by age: up to 1 year old and from 1 to 3 years old. The frequency of diagnosis of acute respiratory infections (ARI) in children of both groups was also determined. The studied indicators were analyzed using relative values of frequency and distribution. Student's t-test and Pearson's χ2 were used in their comparison. The results with a significance level of p 0.05). Group 1 children were identified monthly, more often in November and February. Iidentification of group 2 children was observed in early autumn, winter and early spring. ARI in children of group 1 was diagnosed more often in January, February, August, and November. Conclusion. The results of the study are preliminary, show differences in epidemiological features of intestinal monoinfection associated with K. pneumoniae and combined intestinal infection associated with K. pneumoniae and rotavirus in infants and young children.