Characteristics of Haemophilus influenzae carriage among healthy children in China: A meta-analysis.

Background: Haemophilus influenzae (Hi) commonly causes invasive and noninvasive bacterial infections. Nationwide investigation on the carriage characteristics of H influenzae in healthy children in China is lacking. We reviewed the prevalence of H influenzae infections in this population.

Methods: PubMed, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, and CBM databases were electronically searched to collect cross-sectional studies on the prevalence of Hi among healthy children in China from inception to November 2021. Two reviewers independently screened the literature, extracted the data, and assessed the risk of bias in the included studies. Meta-analysis was performed using Stata 14.0.

Results: A total of 28 studies involving 14,301 children were included, among whom there were 2878 children with Hi. The pooled carriage rate of Hi was 0.21 (95% CI: 0.17-0.25). Subgroup analysis indicated no significant sex- or age-related differences. The proportion of Hi in winter (29%) was higher than that in other seasons. Results indicated significant differences among the provinces, with carriage proportions ranging from 0.11 to 0.60. The proportion of nontypeable H influenzae (NTHi) was higher than that of the capsular type. The proportion of Hib in the capsular type (2%) was higher than that in other serotypes.

Conclusions: The carriage rate of Hi in healthy children in China was 21% with no sex-related age differences. The proportion of Hi in winter was high, and the proportions of Hi in different regions were significantly different. NTHi was the predominant serotype detected in children.