Human Coronavirus Infection among Children with Acute Lower Respiratory Tract Infection in Thailand

Abstract

Objective: This study was performed to further identify the previously uncharacterized human coronavirus 229E (hCoV-229E) and human coronavirus OC43 (hCoV-OC43) in Thailand by using the RT-PCR technique. In addition, we performed this study in order to delineate the prevalence, the potential clinical impacts and evaluation of the genetic characterization of this pathogen in young children who presented with acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRI). Methods: We obtained nasopharyngeal secretions (NPs) from 226 children <5 years of age who were either attending the outpatient department or hospitalized with ALRI from March 2002 to July 2003. All clinical, laboratory, RT-PCR, direct sequencing and phylogenetic analysis data were collected and analyzed. Results: Of the 226 NPs samples from infants and young children presented with ALRI, 8 (3.54%) were positive for hCoV-229E, 2 (0.88%) were positive for hCoV-OC43, and 1 (0.44%) had co-infection. The following clinical presentations were noted: fever (100%), rhinitis (44%), acute bronchiolitis (44%), viral pneumonia (33%), viral pneumonia triggering asthma exacerbation (11%) as well as viral pneumonia causing BPD exacerbation (11%). All positive samples were subjected to direct sequencing. The amino acid sequences had 82–99% similarity to previous sequences stored in the GenBank database. Conclusion: The molecular technique we applied to detect human coronavirus appears justified as a valuable diagnostic approach to elucidate the prevalence, cause and clinical implications of ALRI among infants and young children.

Human Coronavirus Infections in Rural Thailand: A Comprehensive Study Using Real‐Time Reverse‐Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction Assays

“…Despite sensitive assays, we found the prevalence of infection with HCoVs to be very low during the study period. Similar to our findings, a recent study from Bangkok, Thailand, conducted during 2002-2003 found 229E and OC43 infections in 4.9% of young children with acute respiratory tract illness; however, the majority were 229E infections rather than OC43 infections [44]. The proportion of HCoV types we detected is similar to those of other international studies reporting HCoVs from both upper and lower acute respiratory tract illness by use of PCR assays [12-16, 18, 20-23, 31, 45].…”

High prevalence of human rhinovirus C infection in Thai children with acute lower respiratory tract disease

“…According to our previous observation, the prevalence of HCoVs infection in children who had acute LRT diseases in Thailand was found to be extremely low. 27 HRV was the most common respiratory pathogen found in 87 samples from 84 patients indicating a prevalence of 30% in this sample population. Two patients had a total of 5 HRV infections between them.…”

Human Bocavirus quantitative DNA detection in French children hospitalized for acute bronchiolitis

“…Our data clearly support the hypothesis that HboV plays a significant role as etiological cause of bronchiolitis in children. However, it is possible that we underestimated the prevalence of infections by other common respiratory viruses because PCR was not applied to all possible respiratory pathogens, especially parainfluenza 4a and 4b, and coronaviruses OC43, 229E, NL64 and HKU1), which are considered minor causes of childhood bronchiolitis (Kaplan et al, 2008;Theamboonlers et al, 2007;Vabret et al, 2008). Moreover, we did not test respiratory samples from a control group of children matched for age, residence area and month of hospitalization and who were free of known respiratory symptoms or diseases.…”