Epidemiology of Human Adenoviruses: A 20-Year Retrospective Observational Study in Hospitalized Patients in Bern, Switzerland

Akello, Joyce Odeke; Kamgang, Richard; Barbani, Maria Teresa; Suter-Riniker, Franziska; Leib, Stephen L; Ramette, Alban

The institute for infectious diseases (IFIK), university of Bern, is a diagnostic, teaching and research institute in Switzerland. The institute covers the entire spectrum of microbiological diagnostics and also provides university education in clinical microbiology to students studying human medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and cell biology. Samples used in this study are part of the IFIK clinical biobank and consisted of previously screened patient samples referred to the IFIK for diagnostics purposes by physicians from the Inselspital and other regional clinics in Bern. The clinical bio-bank consisted of patient samples and information on HAdV cases since 1998. The results of all cases were extracted from the electronic health-care records and information such as laboratory I.D., patient I.D., demographic data (age and sex), screening tests done, and sample type, which were available for most samples. Archived patients' samples were approved for this research by the Swiss Ethics Committees on Research involving humans (BASEC-Nr: Req-2018-00158).