Prevalence of non-influenza respiratory viruses in acute respiratory infection cases in Mexico

Fernandes-Matano, Larissa; Monroy-Muñoz, Irma Eloísa; Angeles-Martínez, Javier; Sarquiz-Martinez, Brenda; Palomec-Nava, Iliana Donají; Pardavé-Alejandre, Hector Daniel; Santos Coy-Arechavaleta, Andrea; Santacruz-Tinoco, Clara Esperanza; González-Ibarra, Joaquín; González-Bonilla, Cesar Raúl; Muñoz-Medina, José Esteban

This type of study helps provide relevant data for the development of treatment and prevention strategies because the currently available antiviral agents and vaccines are primarily directed at influenza infection. However, the proportion of ARIs caused by different influenza viral agents is not negligible, with the detection range of non-influenza respiratory viruses spanning from 16.5 to 72.7% in studies conducted worldwide [4;16-20] , depending on factors such as the study design, study population, detection technique used, and period covered by the study. In our case, the prevalence of the analysed viruses was 35.8%, which was within the cited range. The most prevalent viruses were RV, HRSV, and HMPV, and the only virus that was not detected was HPIV2. This result was consistent with other studies in which type 2 parainfluenza virus had the lowest detection frequency [21-24]. However, there is evidence that its prevalence increases when HPIV-3 and HPIV-1 are reduced [25] [26] .