Human metapneumovirus associated with community‐acquired pneumonia in children in Beijing, China

Abstract

Community-acquired pneumonia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children worldwide. However, few studies have been conducted on the infection of human metapneumovirus (hMPV) associated with pediatric community-acquired pneumonia in China. Nasopharyngeal aspirates were collected between July 2008 and June 2010 from 1,028 children, aged ≤16.5 years, who were diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia in Beijing, China. Reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used to screen the samples for hMPV and common respiratory viruses. hMPV was detected in 6.3% of the patients with community-acquired pneumonia. This detection rate is the third highest for a respiratory virus in children with community-acquired pneumonia, after that of rhinovirus (30.9%) and respiratory syncytial virus (30.7%). The detection rate of hMPV in 2008/2009 (42/540, 7.8%) was significantly higher than in 2009/2010 (23/488, 4.7%; χ(2) = 4.065, P = 0.044). The hMPV subtypes A2, B1, and B2 were found to co-circulate, with A2 being most prevalent. These results indicate that hMPV plays a substantial role in pediatric community-acquired pneumonia in China. Overall, these findings provide a better understanding of the epidemiological and clinical features of hMPV infections.

Clinical features of human metapneumovirus genotypes in children with acute lower respiratory tract infection in Changsha, China

“…Previous studies have reported the prevalence of certain predominant hMPV genotypes in a given year. hMPV sub-genotypes may vary in different years and alternative predominance of hMPV sub-genotypes has been observed [Matsuzaki et al, 2008;Pitoiset et al, 2010;Kim et al, 2012;Lu et al, 2013;Wei et al, 2013]. The present study found that the epidemiological characteristics and clinical features were fundamentally similar among patients infected with different genotypes of hMPV, which is consistent with the results of some studies [Bosis et al, 2008;Wei et al, 2013].…”

High antibiotic prescription rates in hospitalized children with human metapneumovirus infection in comparison to RSV infection emphasize the value of point-of-care diagnostics

“…Besides a close phylogenetic relationship of hMPV and RSV [7,8], clinical symptoms are very similar and rated as indistinguishable [6,9]. Just like RSV, hMPV can cause uncomplicated infections of the upper airway up to severe bronchiolitis and community-acquired viral pneumonia [10][11][12][13][14].…”

“…According to preexisting studies, hMPV can be detected as pathogen in 5-14% of pediatric patients with symptoms of an acute respiratory infection [11,12,14].…”

Human metapneumovirus: review of an important respiratory pathogen

“…5 Since then, hMPV has been detected in 4-16% of patients with ARIs. [6][7][8] The incidence of hMPV may vary from year to year in the same area. 9 hMPV causes disease primarily in children, but can infect adults and immunocompromised individuals as well.…”