Detection of Human Bocavirus Type 1 infection in Panamanian children with respiratory illness

Abstract

The human bocavirus (HBoV) was added as a new member of the Parvoviridae family in 2005 upon its discovery in nasopharyngeal aspirates from children with respiratory infection. Recently, there has been increasing evidence of worldwide circulation of HBoV; however, in Latin America few studies have been conducted. In order to detect the circulation of HBoV in Panama, based on the National Flu Surveillance System, we developed this retrospective, cross-sectional study, from January 2011 to January 2012. Children younger than 6 years old who presented with respiratory disease were enrolled in this study. Nasopharyngeal swabs were taken in sentinel surveillance sites. Samples were tested to detect mRNA from HBoV, as well as viral RNA and DNA from others respiratory viruses. A total of 1078 patients were enrolled in this study. Overall, 44 (4.1%) of the patients presented HBoV. The most common symptoms were cough (84.6%), fever (82.1%), rhinorrhea (74.4%), and sore throat (38.5%). Less than half (45.5%) of HBoV infected patients presented with monoinfection while 54.5% of cases presented with coinfection with others respiratory viruses. Both, outpatients and inpatients were included in this study. Outpatients corresponded to 52.3% of the cases and 47.7% were inpatients. Coinfection was observed in the 50% of the inpatient cases. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that the circulating strains belonged to different clades of HBoV genotype 1. Taken together, our results support the pathogenic nature of this viral agent, especially in younger children.

Human bocavirus in hospitalized children under 5 years with acute respiratory infection, São Paulo, Brazil, 2010

“…Thus, the identification of HBoV genotypes, other than HBoV-1, associated with ARI might be lost. Together with previous reports from Asia [9,23], Europe [7], South America [10], Central America [33] and North America [34], our findings provide further evidence for a global distribution of HBoV-1, and its high association with respiratory infections. The genetic analysis of HBoV-1 strains showed minimal genomic variability (0.3-0.9% nt, HBoV-3 Fig.…”

“…Bootstrap values are shown as percentages at the branch nodes 0-0.7% aa), similar to data reported previously [2,35], suggesting minor genetic variability among HBoV-1 strains. It is possible that this low genetic diversity is due to the lack of HBoV-1 sequences available from different regions [33]. Molecular epidemiology of HBoV-1 has been conducted previously in Brazil [10]; however, the viral sequences acquired were rare and insufficient to reveal any temporal or spatial characteristics.…”

Viral respiratory infections diagnosed by multiplex polymerase chain reaction in pediatric patients

“…Bocavirus, after being identified in 2005 has been isolated from 1.5% to 19% of the respiratory tract samples of children who were admitted to the hospital due to respiratory viral disease . Bocavirus causes coinfections up to 90% of the cases with other viruses such as influenza, rhinovirus, parainfluenza, RSV, and metapneumovirus . The prevalence of bocavirus was 2.8% in our study with a coinfection frequency of 48.8%, mainly associated with rhinovirus/enterovirus, RSV, and influenza A/B.…”

Epidemiology of HBoV1 infection and relationship with meteorological conditions in hospitalized pediatric patients with acute respiratory illness: a 7-year study in a subtropical region

“…ARI is one of the most common human diseases, predominantly caused by different respiratory viruses [41,42]. One of these viruses, HBoV1 infection, causes global epidemics, has a high public health burden and circulates with different patterns in different areas [3][4][5][6][7]43]. In general, the prevalence of viruses varies because of factors such as Multiple linear regression analysis was performed using HBoV1 monthly prevalence as the dependent variable, monthly mean temperature (or mean temperature in the preceding month), mean relative humidity, mean wind speed and sunshine duration as the independent variables Data captured in bold are highly significant geographical location, climatic conditions, population and social activity [38].…”

“…HBoV1 has been confirmed as an important respiratory pathogen and is found in respiratory infections in children and adults worldwide. The prevalence of HBoV1 nucleic acid detection varies from 1.5 to 33% in patients with acute respiratory illness (ARI), according to different studies [3][4][5][6][7]. Serological and nucleic acid test results are generally consistent [8][9][10][11], showing HBoV1 infection is very common.…”