Human bocavirus infections in hospitalized Greek children

Haidopoulou, Katerina; Goutaki, Myrofora; Damianidou, Lambrini; Eboriadou, Maria; Antoniadis, Antonis; Papa, Anna

Previous studies have implicated HBoV as a cause of RTI, most commonly in children < 2 years old, a finding similar to our study, where 10/12 children were younger than 2 years, the youngest one being a 2-month boy with acute bronchiolitis [13, 14, [20] [21] [22] . However, frequency of HBoV infection was found to be relatively low in children younger than 6 months, and the possibility of passive protection due to maternal antibodies has been questioned. These findings together with the high prevalence rates in young children led to the hypothesis that HBoV may be an endemic virus with high attack rates in those susceptible; one would then expect that the majority of the population would be infected during childhood. In support of this hypothesis are the high seroprevalence rates against HBoV reported in the adult population [23] . The mere presence of HBoV in the airway may not be able to define its role as a pathogen; therefore it is anticipated that serology would be a useful diagnostic addition to the study of HBoV infection.