PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Gregorio Paolo Milani
AU  - Valentina Bollati
AU  - Luca Ruggiero
AU  - Samantha Bosis
AU  - Raffaella Maria Pinzani
AU  - Giovanna Lunghi
AU  - Federica Rota
AU  - Laura Dioni
AU  - Anna Luganini
AU  - Carlo Agostoni
AU  - Paola Marchisio
TI  - Bronchiolitis and SARS-CoV-2
AID  - 10.1136/archdischild-2020-321108
DP  - 2021 Oct 01
TA  - Archives of Disease in Childhood
PG  - 999--1001
VI  - 106
IP  - 10
4099  - http://adc.bmj.com/content/106/10/999.short
4100  - http://adc.bmj.com/content/106/10/999.full
SO  - Arch Dis Child2021 Oct 01; 106
AB  - Background It has been speculated that the SARS-CoV-2 was already widespread in western countries before February 2020.Methods We gauged this hypothesis by analysing the nasal swab of infants with either bronchiolitis or a non-infectious disease admitted to the Ospedale Maggiore, Milan (one of the first epicentres of SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Europe) from November 2019.Results The SARS-CoV-2 RNA was never detected in 218 infants with bronchiolitis (95 females, median age 4.9 months) and 49 infants (22 females, median age 5.6 months) with a non-infectious disease between November 2019 and February 2020. On the contrary, two infants hospitalised for bronchiolitis between March and April 2020 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.Conclusions This study does not support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 was already circulating among infants before the official outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, it shows for the first time that SARS-CoV-2 might cause bronchiolitis requiring hospitalisation.Data are available on reasonable request.