Epidemiology of Human Adenoviruses: A 20-Year Retrospective Observational Study in Hospitalized Patients in Bern, Switzerland

Akello, Joyce Odeke; Kamgang, Richard; Barbani, Maria Teresa; Suter-Riniker, Franziska; Leib, Stephen L; Ramette, Alban

We analysed samples that were referred to the IFIK for HAdV screening from January 1998 to December 2017. Of the 43,562 samples screened for HAdV from suspected patients, 34,556 (79.3%) samples were identified as unique patient cases based on patient I.D. and year of entry. Based on the laboratory confirmed results, 1302 (3.8%) were identified as positive. Of the 1302 HAdV positive cases, one case had information missing on age, gender, and clinical information, and was thus excluded from further analysis. The median age of HAdV positive patients was 3 years (range 0 months -100 years; Table 2 ). A significant difference in the number of HAdV positive cases among males and females was observed (P < 0.001) with females accounting for 42.4% (552/1301) of the cases. A significant difference in the frequency of positive HAdV cases among the different age groups was also observed (P < 0.001), with the highest number of HAdV positive cases being found among young children aged ≤4 years (744; 57.2%), followed by those in the age group 20-44 years old (163; 12.5%). The least age group (59; 4.5%) was for children between 5 and 9 years. Logistic regression analyses confirmed that the overall effect of age category was statistically significant in determining positivity for HAdV infection as compared to those aged ≤4 years (P < 0.001).