Detection of human bocavirus from fecal samples of Hungarian children with acute gastroenteritis.

Szomor, Katalin N; Kapusinszky, Beatrix; Rigó, Zita; Kis, Zoltán; Rózsa, Mónika; Farkas, Agnes; Szilágyi, Andrásné; Berencsi, György; Takács, Mária

OBJECTIVES Human bocavirus (HBoV), a newly identified member of the Parvoviridae family is associated with respiratory tract and gastroenteric infections, mostly of young children. HBoV infections show a seasonal distribution with the peak in temperate areas being in the winter months. METHODS In our study, 35 throat swabs from children under 5 years with acute respiratory symptoms and 61 stool samples from children (<5 years) with acute gastroenteritis were collected in the period of October 2007-March 2008. A HBoV-specific polymerase chain reaction for detection of the virus, and sequence analysis for identification of virus variants were performed. RESULTS Although respiratory samples were all negative, 3.3% of stool samples (2/61) proved to be positive for HBoV. The virus carrier children were 3 and 5 years old. The ratio of HBoV positive samples is similar to international results (2.1-5.5%). CONCLUSIONS According to the result of sequence analysis of HBoV, the occurrence of genotype 2 of HBoV in Hungary is confirmed.