Virologic study of acute lower respiratory tract infections in children admitted to the paediatric department of Blida University Hospital, Algeria

Derrar, F.; Izri, K.; Kaddache, C.; Boukari, R.; Hannoun, D.

Since the first identification of HRV in 1953, about 100 serotypes have been described, and others still appear, reflecting the high variability of this virus. This variability gives a definite advantage to molecular biology techniques versus cell culture [29] , which made it possible to highlight the serotypes in this study. HRV group A and B are the most common groups. HRV group C seems to be responsible for more severe clinical forms [30] . The incidence of HRV in ALRTI in young children has never been studied in Algeria. In our study, HRV was isolated in 23% of children. The average age of the children was 5 months. The clinical picture was not different between HRV-positive and HRV-negative children, or with children in the overall study sample. Smuts et al. [31] found HRV in 58% of young South African children evaluated for wheezing and concluded that HRV is the first viral agent at this age in these children. They did not note a clinical difference between the HRVpositive and HRV-negative groups.