The incidence of human bocavirus infection among children admitted to hospital in Singapore

Abstract

Human bocavirus (HBoV) is a parvovirus, belonging to the genus Bocavirus. The virus was identified recently in Sweden, and has now been detected in several different countries. Although it is associated with lower respiratory tract infections in pediatric patients, the incidence of HBoV infection in a developed country in South East Asia, has not been examined. The objective of this study was to determine the importance of HBoV as a cause of lower respiratory tract infections among children admitted to hospital in Singapore. Five hundred nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from anonymized pediatric patients admitted to the Kandang Kerbau Women's and Children's Hospital for acute respiratory infections. The specimens were tested for the presence of HBoV using polymerase chain reactions. HBoV was detected in 8.0% of the patients tested, and a majority of these HBoV patients exhibited lower respiratory tract infections. A significant level of coinfection with respiratory syncytial viruses and rhinoviruses was also observed in these HBoV patients. The data suggest that HBoV is an important cause of lower respiratory tract infections among children admitted to hospital in Singapore, and is the first study examining the incidence of HBoV infection in a developed country in South East Asia. J. Med. Virol. 81:82–89, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Human bocavirus amongst an all‐ages population hospitalised with acute lower respiratory infections in Cambodia

“…Indeed, pneumonia was the most common clinical diagnosis amongst the ALRI patients investigated, regardless of age. This finding was consistent with the results of similar studies in which HBoV‐1 infection has been associated with severe respiratory illness, including pneumonia, 20,32,40,41,42 bronchiolitis or bronchitis 36,38–40 . Amongst a study of children aged <2 years hospitalised for acute asthma, HBoV was the predominant virus detected 43 .…”

“…In this study, 44% of patients were co‐infected with HBoV and an additional respiratory virus. Regionally, the reported rate of HBoV co‐infections varies and does not appear to be particularly associated with hospitalisation: 42% amongst hospitalized children in Singapore, 32 90% amongst out‐patient children aged <5 years in rural Thailand, 37 9% amongst hospitalised children in Vietnam 31 . In this study, co‐infection with HBoV and HRhV was most frequently detected (Table 3), analogous to the findings of a similar study conducted amongst paediatric patients in rural Thailand 37 .…”

“…Globally, the incidence of HBoV infection has been reported to range from 1·5 to 19% 30 . Overall, the incidence of HBoV infection amongst the all‐ages population of Cambodian patients hospitalised with ALRI was 1·5%, which did not vary annually and was lower than that reported regionally 31–34 . Amongst the same population, the incidence of HBoV was similar to that of HMPV (1·7%), 21 but lower than RSV (8·2%) 35 .…”

Molecular epidemiology of respiratory viruses among Malaysian Young children with a confirmed respiratory infection during 2014–2015

“…Several emerging respiratory viruses including human bocavirus (8.6%), human metapneumovirus (7.4%), and influenza A virus H1N1 (2.8%) were detected in this study. These affected children may require extra medical care because these 3 viruses had been linked with substantial morbidity in previous studies (30)(31)(32)(33). Human coronaviruses, i.e., 229E, HKU1, NL63, and OC43 strains are associated with a range of respiratory infections (34).…”

Correlation between bocavirus infection and humoral response, and co-infection with other respiratory viruses in children with acute respiratory infection

“…2,6,[13][14][15] Co-infection with other viruses was commonly observed in HBoVpositive patients with respiratory tract symptoms. 5,6,[15][16][17][18] Thus, whether HBoV is a major cause of respiratory disease remains questionable.…”