Research Article

Bocavirus Detection in Acute Respiratory Tract Infections of Childhood

10.4274/atfm.galenos.2021.04935

  • Sevinç Yenice Aktaş
  • Fikret Şahin
  • Deniz Tekin
  • Devran Gerçeker

Received Date: 11.06.2021 Accepted Date: 01.07.2021 J Ankara Univ Fac Med 2021;74(3):273-277

Objectives:

To investigate the frequency of human bocavirus (HBoV) in children under the age of 2 years, who applied to the hospital with respiratory tract infection complaints, by using molecular methods.

Materials and Methods:

In November 2009, nasopharyngeal aspirate samples were collected from children under the age of 2 years, who applied to the pediatric outpatient clinic and pediatric emergency outpatient clinics with the complaints of respiratory tract infections, and aspirate samples were included in the study between March and June 2010 after being stored at -80 ºC. HBoV DNA was analyzed using the “in house” polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method after primer design. At that time, since it was a newly identified virus, it could not be studied with the positive control, and the samples thought to be positive were identified by sequence analysis. As can be seen, the study is the first study conducted in Turkey with children under the age of 2 years. The study is a retrospective descriptive study. Demographic data of the patients (percentages, mean, minimum-maximum values) were analyzed with the SPSS package program.

Results:

For the purpose of detecting HBoV, 200 patients were included in the study. The mean age of these patients was 7.4 (minimum: 30 days, maximum: 24 months) months, and 64% were boys. Two-hundred nasopharyngeal aspirate samples taken from these patients were analyzed. HBoV DNA was positive in 6 (3%) of the nasopharyngeal samples. Of the 6 positive samples, 5 belonged to male and 1 belonged to female gender and their ages were between 4 and 24 months.

Conclusion:

HBoV DNA was detected in 3% of children under the age of 2 years, who applied with the complaint of respiratory tract infection, by using PCR method. Although the evidence about the pathogenicity of HBoV is increasing, more studies are needed to increase the knowledge about the disease and severity of HBoV.

Keywords: Human Bocavirus, Respiratory Virus, Childhood Infections

Full Text (Turkish)