At 97 hospitals in the U.S. and Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of urinary tract infections (UTIs) and invasive bacterial infections (IBIs) in febrile infants was low at times when SARS-CoV-2 prevalence was high. “The prevalence of UTI and IBI in eligible febrile infants decreased to previously published, prepandemic levels by early 2022,” the authors conclude.
The study included full-term, well-appearing infants 8-60 days old with a temperature of ≥38°C and an emergency department visit or hospitalization at a participating site between Nov. 1, 2020, and Mar. 31, 2022. Logistic regression identified these trends in UTIs and IBIs and associations of COVID-19 prevalence with UTI/IBI probabilities: “We included 9,112 infants; 603 (6.6%) had UTI, 163 (1.8%) had bacteremia without meningitis, and 43 (0.5%) had bacterial meningitis. UTI prevalence decreased from 11.2% in November 2020 to 3.0% in January 2022. IBI prevalence was highest in February 2021 (6.1%) and decreased to 0.4% in January 2022. There was a significant downward monthly trend for odds of UTI (odds ratio [OR] 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.91–0.94) and IBI (OR 0.90; 95% CI: 0.87–0.93). For every 5% increase in COVID-19 prevalence in the month of presentation, the odds of an infant having UTI (OR 0.97; 95% CI: 0.96–0.98) or bacteremia without meningitis decreased (OR 0.94; 95% CI: 0.88–0.99).”