High prevalence of human bocavirus 1 in infants with lower acute respiratory tract disease in Argentina, 2007 – 2009

• Main Authors: Lucía María Ghietto, Alicia Cámara, Yumei Zhou, Mauro Pedranti, Silvia Ferreyra, Teryl Frey, Jorge Cámara, Maria Pilar Adamo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2012-01-01
• Series: Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1413867012702726

Human bocavirus (HBoV) is a parvovirus whose association with respiratory disease is currently under investigation. Objective: To determine HBoV prevalence in children with lower acute respiratory infection. Methods: We investigated HBoV in 433 nasopharyngeal aspirates collected in 2007–2009 from children 0 to 5 years old hospitalized with bronchiolitis or pneumonia in Córdoba, Argentina. Results: The general prevalence of HBoV was 21.5% and the positive cases (HBoV+) were more frequent during winter and spring. The mean age of HBoV+ patients was 6.9 months, with 87.1% of the detections corresponding to infants less than 1 year old (among which the prevalence of HBoV was 26.3% in patients < 3 months of age, 22.1% in 3 to 6 months, 25.3% in 6 to 9 months, and 18.8% in 9 to 12 months). The sequence analysis of the NP1 coding region of 15 isolates showed that all isolates from Cordoba were HBoV1 which exhibited a homology of nearly 100% both among themselves and with the originally discovered virus from 2005. Conclusion: Overall, our results indicate that HBoV is a significant pathogen that contributes to acute respiratory infection both on its own and during coinfection with other viruses. Keywords: Human bocavirus 1, Infant, Bronchiolitis, Pneumonia