Co-circulation of Four Human Coronaviruses (HCoVs) in Queensland Children with Acute Respiratory Tract Illnesses in 2004

Viruses

Ian M. Mackay¹  Katherine E. Arden¹  David J. Speicher¹  Nicholas T. O’Neil¹  Peter K. McErlean¹  Ristan M. Greer²  Michael D. Nissen¹ 

[1] Queensland Paediatric Infectious Diseases Laboratory, Queensland Children’s Medical Research Institute, Sir Albert Sakzewski Virus Research Centre, Children’s Health Service, University of Queensland, Herston 4029, Australia;Queensland Children’s Medical Research Institute, University of Queensland, Herston 4029, Australia;

关键词: respiratory virus;    coronavirus;    HCoV-HKU1;    HCoV-NL63;    HCoV-229E;    HCoV-OC43;    real-time PCR;    clinical impact;   

DOI  :  10.3390/v4040637

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Acute respiratory illnesses (ARIs) with unconfirmed infectious aetiologies peak at different times of the year. Molecular diagnostic assays reduce the number of unconfirmed ARIs compared to serology- or culture-based techniques. Screening of 888 inpatient and outpatient respiratory specimens spanning late autumn through to early spring, 2004, identified the presence of a human coronavirus (HCoV) on 74 occasions (8.3% of all specimens and 26.3% of all respiratory virus detections). Prevalence peaked in August (late winter in the southern hemisphere) when they were detected in 21.9% of specimens tested. HCoV-HKU1 and HCoV-OC43 comprised 82.4% of all HCoVs detected. Positive specimens were used to develop novel reverse transcriptase real-time PCRs (RT-rtPCRs) for HCoV detection. An objective clinical severity score was assigned to each positive HCoV patient. Severity scores were similar to those from a random selection of young children who were positive for respiratory syncytial virus at a different time but from the same specimen population. During the cooler months of 2004, sensitive and specific RT-rtPCRs identified the concurrent circulation of all four HCoVs, a quarter of which co-occurred with another virus and most of which were from children under the age of two years.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.