title: Epidemiological comparison of three Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia epidemics in a single hospital over 10 years.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) pneumonia epidemics have occurred in 3- to 4-year cycles in Korea. We evaluated the epidemiologic characteristics of MP pneumonia in Daejeon, Korea, from 2003 to 2012.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively analyzed 779 medical records of children (0-15 years of old) with MP pneumonia admitted to our institution and compared the data from 3 recent epidemics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 779 patients, the mean age and male-to-female ratio were 5.0±2.2 years and 1:1, and most cases were observed in autumn. There were three epidemics during the study period, in 2003, 2006-2007, and 2011. In our comparison of the three epidemics, we found no differences in mean age, the male-to-female ratio, hospital stay, or the rate of seroconverters during hospitalization. All three epidemics began in early summer and peaked in September 2003 and 2011 and in October 2006 and then gradually decreased until the next year's spring season, although the 2006 epidemic extended further into 2007. The peak age groups in the children in 2003 and 2006 were 3-6 year-olds (57.5% and 56%, respectively), but in the 2011 epidemic, the peak group was 1-4 year-olds (46.5%). The proportion of the <2 years of age group was 20%, 15.7% and 28.8%, and >10 years of age group was 5.2%, 13.8%, and 14.8% of total patients, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MP pneumonia outbreaks occurred every 3-4 years. The pattern of 3 recent epidemics was similar in demographic characteristics and seasonality with some variations in each outbreak.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Eun-Kyung
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. ; Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea, Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: You-Sook
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Youn
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. ; Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea, Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Jung-Woo
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Rhim
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. ; Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea, Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Myung-Seok
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jin-Han
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. ; Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea, Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung-Yil
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Lee
keywords: Epidemics; Epidemiology; Korea; Mycoplasma pneumonia