Detection and clinical characteristics analysis of respiratory viruses in hospitalized children with acute respiratory tract infections by a GeXP-based multiplex-PCR assay

Huang, Huanhuan; Chen, Suqing; Zhang, Xiaoyan; Hong, Linliang; Zeng, Yongbin; Wu, Bin

Overall, the positive rate for the detection of viruses in the present study was 43.26%; HRV, IFVA, HADV, and H1N1 ranked top four in all the infected viruses. With the application of this multiplex-PCR assay, the detection of multiple co-infecting viruses had become common which reflected the high sensitivity of this multiplex-PCR assay. Kouni S described that the prevalence of viral co-infections ranged between 15% and 44% in children seen in the hospital or emergency department. 13 In the present study, the detection rate of In our study, gender had no influence on the detection rate of respiratory viruses, which was consistent with other reports. 8, 14, 15 Many studies documented that respiratory viral infection was characterized by seasonal distributions, with their peaks lasting from winter to early spring. 15, 16 In the present study, the detection rate of respiratory viruses was also higher in winter and spring. One possible reason was that climate change may be an important factor contributing to the variability in seasonal trends and viral etiologies of ARTI; the cold weather during this period may increase the risk of respiratory infections. When the analysis was carried out according to the ages, we However, there are several limitations to our study. First, all data for this study were obtained from a single center and may not be representative of the entire pediatric population. Second, the sample size was relatively small, and more samples are needed to confirm these observations in future.