Epidemiological and clinical evaluation of children with respiratory virus infections

Shatizadeh, Somayeh; Yavarian, Jila; Rezaie, Farhad; Mahmoodi, Mahmood; Naseri, Maryam; Mokhtari Azad, Talat

Among all respiratory virus infections because of the pandemics and annual epidemics, influenza viruses are a center of concern. In the present study influenza viruses were detected in 5.4% of the children and similar to the other studies they were in all age groups during the cold months (December to March) (22) . Female dominance had been seen in these children with fever, myalgia and cough. HMPV was first identified in 2001 in children with respiratory tract disease (23). We detected 1 hMPV in 2 year old female child with RSV infection who had Kawasaki syndrome and hospitalized in the pediatric ward. Studies have reported high coinfection rates with these two viruses (24). Similar to the Catherine M. report, which showed hMPV distribution frequently in the winter months (25), we detected the only hMPV of this study on February. Fever and cough were the clinical signs and symptoms of this child. RTIs are common in young children, decrease in frequency with age, and predominate in boys (26, 27) . This age distribution was the same in the present study which demonstrated a higher incidence of RTI in children younger than 1 year old. There was male predominance in this study but it was not significant. The relative frequency of each viral agent and the pattern of occurrence were similar to those described in previous reports (28, 29) . It is difficult to formulate a single theory to explain the epidemiology of viral infections at different times of the year. The most appropriate theory may be that, by staying indoors in cold weather, families promote the spread of virus infections which rely on the droplet transmission within confined spaces (30). Susceptible children could acquire the virus from older children in whom manifestations of viral respiratory tract infections are mild (31) .