Human Bocavirus: Prevalence and Clinical Spectrum at a Children’s Hospital

Abstract

Background.Molecular methods of pathogen discovery have recently led to the description of several new respiratory viruses.Human bocavirus (HBoV), a proposed member of the family Parvoviridae, is one of the most recently described respiratory viruses.Initial reports indicate that HBoV is a common cause of respiratory tract infection in children. Methods.A total of 1474 nasal scraping specimens collected over a 20-month period were screened by polymerase chain reaction for the presence of HBoV nucleic acid.Positive results were confirmed with a second polymerase chain reaction assay from a different genomic region.The medical records of patients with positive results were reviewed for demographic and clinical data. Results.HBoV DNA was identified in 82 samples (5.6%).The peak rate of HBoV infection occurred during the period of March through May in both 2004 and 2005.Sixty-three percent of infected patients were !12 months of age.The most common symptoms were cough, rhinorrhea, and fever.Other symptoms of interest included diarrhea and a "paroxysmal" cough that was clinically suspected to be caused by Bordetella pertussis. Conclusions.HBoV DNA is commonly present in children with upper and lower respiratory tract infections.The presence of a pertussis-like cough and diarrhea in association with HBoV infection merits further investigation.Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are among the most common infections in children, occurring 3-8 times per year in infants and young children [1].According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Vital Statistics Report [2], ∼4 million children were born in the United States in 2003, suggesting that 12-32 million episodes of URTI occur each year among children aged 1-2 years.URTI can lead to acute asthma exacerbations, acute otitis media, and lower respiratory tract infection [3][4][5].Viral respiratory infections in children are often due to rhinoviruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and parainfluenza viruses, which are most frequently identified by culture or antigen detection [1].In clinical practice, a specific agent is often not identified, owing to the lack of sensitive tests or the presence of an as-yet unknown path-