Human bocavirus in children hospitalized for acute respiratory tract infection in Rome

Abstract

Background The role of human bocavirus (HBoV) as a respiratory pathogen has not been fulfilled yet. We aimed to describe clinical and serological characteristics of children with HBoV hospitalized for acute respiratory tract infection and to evaluate whether differences occur between HBoV alone and in co-infection. Methods We retrospectively reviewed data from 60 children (median age of 6.2 months, range 0.6-70.9) hospitalized for acute respiratory symptoms, with HBoV detected from a respiratory sample, using a reverse transcriptase-PCR for 14 respiratory viruses (including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza virus A and B, human coronavirus OC43, 229E, NL-63 and HUK1, adenovirus, rhinovirus, parainfluenza virus1-3, and human metapneumovirus).Results HBoV was detected alone in 29 (48.3%) patients, while in co-infection with other viruses in 31 patients (51.7%), with a peak between December and January. Among the 60 patients, 34 were bronchiolitis, 19 wheezing, 3 pneumonia, 2 upper respiratory tract infection, and 2 whooping cough. Seven children (11.6%) required admission to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for respiratory failure. No differences was observed in age, family history for atopy and/or asthma, clinical presentations, chest X-ray, or laboratory findings in children with HBoV alone vs. multiple viral detection. RSV was the most frequently co-detected virus (61.3%). When compared with HBoV detection alone, the co-detection of RSV and HBoV was associated with male sex (P = 0.013), younger age (P = 0.01), and lower blood neutrophil count (P = 0.032). Conclusions HBoV can be detected alone and in co-infection respiratory samples of children with an acute respiratory tract infection. A cause-effect relationship between HBoV and respiratory infection is not clear, so further studies are needed to clarify this point.the cause-effect relationship between HBoV detection and respiratory infections cannot be achieved, yet based on our data and further studies are needed to clarify if HBoV can play a pathogenetic role in respiratory diseases of children.

Severity detection for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients using a machine learning model based on the blood and urine tests

“…Although the urine pH level was not investigated in the coronavirus-infected animals, this may be worth of an investigation. The sex bias was also observed that coronavirus tended to infect males [56,57]. Our data suggested that males were at a higher risk to be infected by COVID-19 and to develop more severe symptoms.…”

Title: Clinical Manifestations and Outcome of Viral Acute Lower Respiratory Infection in Hospitalised Children in Myanmar

“…hBoV was mainly discovered as a coinfection in Swedish children with ALRI of unknown aetiology in 2005 (71-75). One study reported that hBoV was responsible for severe ALRI presentation in children (76), but others reported no differences (77,78). As for the coinfection of hBoV with other viruses, some studies have concluded that both hBoV-and RSV-infected patients had more severe presentations (79,80) than hBoV-infected patients, while other studies indicated that the clinical presentation of the coinfection with hBoV-and RSV did not differ from hBoV infection alone (77), which was consistent with our results.…”

Severity Detection for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Patients Using a Machine Learning Model Based on the Blood and Urine Tests

“…Although the urine pH level was not investigated in the coronavirus-infected animals, this may be worth of an investigation. The sex bias was also observed that coronavirus tended to infect males (Habib et al, 2019;Petrarca et al, 2019). Our data suggested that males were at a higher risk to be infected by COVID-19 and to develop more severe symptoms.…”