{"doi":"10.1093/jpids/piaf100","title":"Parechovirus-A3 Infection in Neonates and Young Infants from the Pre-Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic Period to the Post-Restriction Era from the Pediatric Parechovirus Surveillance Group in Japan","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected the epidemiology of community-acquired infectious diseases; however, the data on the effects of the pandemic on parechovirus-A3 (PeV-A3) circulation remain incomplete.</jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This prospective multicenter observational study was conducted by the Pediatric Parechovirus Surveillance Group in Japan, comprising 12 prefectures, from 2019 to 2023. Febrile neonates and infants younger than 4 months, who were suspected of having sepsis, meningitis, and/or encephalitis and required hospitalization, were included. Parechovirus-A (PeV-A) was detected in the serum and/or cerebrospinal fluid samples by real-time PCR and genotyped by direct sequencing. A phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the viral protein 1 region.</jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Overall, 131 patients were diagnosed with PeV-A infections. Before the pandemic in 2019, 36 patients (27.5%) were reported. Early in the pandemic, the number declined: seven (5.3%) in 2020, one (0.8%) in 2021, and 27 (20.6%) in 2022; however, the number increased to 60 (45.8%) after the removal of restrictions in 2023. Genotype analyses demonstrated that 124 (94.7%) patients had PeV-A3. The median age of PeV-A3 infected patients and peak months (July–August) were similar between 2019 and 2023. PeV-A3 evolved into a single clade and divided into two branches.</jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The number of neonates and young infants infected with PeV-A, mostly PeV-A3, significantly decreased at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the number increased in 2023. Our national surveillance system helped demonstrate the situations in PeV-A3-infected patients from the pre-pandemic period to the post-restriction era in Japan.</jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>","journal":"Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society","year":2025,"id":648366,"datarank":0.10397207708399181,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"self_citation_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1689644,"name":"Jun Tachikawa","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689647,"name":"Tatsuki Ikuse","orcid":"0000-0002-0417-6797","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689650,"name":"Kenji Furuno","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689653,"name":"Meiwa Shibata","orcid":"0000-0003-1477-1415","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689655,"name":"Yoshiaki Cho","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689657,"name":"Masashi Kasai","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689659,"name":"Takanori Funaki","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689660,"name":"Takayuki Yamanaka","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1132398,"name":"Takayo Shoji","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689664,"name":"Kenta Ito","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":651442,"name":"Kenji Kondo","orcid":"0000-0002-0496-5067","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689666,"name":"Hiroki Sakurai","orcid":null,"position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689668,"name":"Kisei Minami","orcid":null,"position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689670,"name":"Tadashi Hoshino","orcid":null,"position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689673,"name":"Yoshihiko Terauchi","orcid":null,"position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1598131,"name":"Akihiko Saitoh","orcid":"0000-0002-2404-1128","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1689641,"name":"Yuta Aizawa","orcid":"0000-0003-0617-6456","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Parechovirus-A3 Infection in Neonates and Young Infants from the Pre-Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic Period to the Post-Restriction Era from the Pediatric Parechovirus Surveillance Group in Japan","abstract":"BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected the epidemiology of community-acquired infectious diseases; however, the data on the effects of the pandemic on parechovirus-A3 (PeV-A3) circulation remain incomplete. METHODS: This prospective multicenter observational study was conducted by the Pediatric Parechovirus Surveillance Group in Japan, comprising 12 prefectures, from 2019 to 2023. Febrile neonates and infants younger than 4 months, who were suspected of having sepsis, meningitis, and/or encephalitis and required hospitalization, were included. Parechovirus-A (PeV-A) was detected in the serum and/or cerebrospinal fluid samples by real-time PCR and genotyped by direct sequencing. A phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the viral protein 1 region. RESULTS: Overall, 131 patients were diagnosed with PeV-A infections. Before the pandemic in 2019, 36 patients (27.5%) were reported. Early in the pandemic, the number declined: seven (5.3%) in 2020, one (0.8%) in 2021, and 27 (20.6%) in 2022; however, the number increased to 60 (45.8%) after the removal of restrictions in 2023. Genotype analyses demonstrated that 124 (94.7%) patients had PeV-A3. The median age of PeV-A3 infected patients and peak months (July-August) were similar between 2019 and 2023. PeV-A3 evolved into a single clade and divided into two branches. CONCLUSIONS: The number of neonates and young infants infected with PeV-A, mostly PeV-A3, significantly decreased at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the number increased in 2023. Our national surveillance system helped demonstrate the situations in PeV-A3-infected patients from the pre-pandemic period to the post-restriction era in Japan.","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"41206097","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4416046728","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"JSPS KAKENHI","grant_id":"JP19K17290","title":null},{"funder_name":"JSPS KAKENHI","grant_id":"JP23K14969","title":null}],"total_grants":2,"fwci":0.7623,"citation_percentile":0.78173015,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"bronze","license":null,"oa_locations":[{"url":"https://academic.oup.com/jpids/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/jpids/piaf100/65225477/piaf100.pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://academic.oup.com/jpids/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/jpids/piaf100/65225477/piaf100.pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jpids/piaf100","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41206097","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Viral Infections and Immunology Research","Respiratory viral infections research","Cytomegalovirus and herpesvirus research"],"mesh_terms":["COVID-19","Female","Genotype","Humans","Infant","Infant, Newborn","Japan","Male","Phylogeny","Picornaviridae Infections","Prospective Studies","Parechovirus"],"keywords":["Pandemic","Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)","2019-20 coronavirus outbreak","Period (music)","Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)","Young adult","Infant","Newborn","Japan","Parechovirus-a3","Covid-19 Pandemic"],"sdg_mappings":[],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-10T02:32:40.315122Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}