Prevalence and Seasonal Distribution of Respiratory Viruses During the 2014 - 2015 Season in Istanbul

Goktas, Safak; Sirin, Mumtaz Cem

Rapid and accurate identification of the viral agents of ARTIs is critically important in order to initiate appropriate antiviral therapy and to prevent the overuse of antibiotics, nosocomial transmission, and lengthy hospital stays (7, 13) . Molecular techniques with higher sensitivity and rapidity play a critical role in the early identification of respiratory viral pathogens, particularly during epidemics (13) . However, the virus-detection rate varies depending on the specimen type, the method used, the working group, and when the study was performed (2). In our study, nasopharyngeal swabs were tested for 18 respiratory viruses and four bacteria by using a multiplex real-time PCR assay, and at least one agent was identified in 72.4% of the samples. This high positive detection rate is similar to the rates reported in other studies, in which molecular methods were performed (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) . The results indicated that individuals in all age groups were susceptible to multiple respiratory viruses that simultaneously circulate in the community. Moreover, despite no significant differences, the detection rate of pathogens in children (75.1%) was slightly higher than in adults (70.9%) ( Table 1) . Previous reports suggested that positive detection rates (in the range of 30.9% -96.1%) for respiratory viruses in pediatric groups were higher than in adult groups (19) . Viral ARTIs have been suggested to occur more frequently in males (15, 20) . Our data also showed a slight male preponderance (53.4%) among the positive cases, but the overall positive detection rate was not significantly different between male and female patients.