Detection of human parechovirus and Saffold virus from hospitalized patients with respiratory tract infection in Hong Kong

Abstract

Background: Respiratory tract infection is one of the major diseases to cause morbidity and mortality worldwide. Undiagnosed respiratory infection remains unclear. Picornavirus is most common to cause respiratory infection after the influenza virus and RSV. There were numerous notorious pathogens in the Picornaviridae family, for instance, human parechovirus and Saffold virus. These emerging and novel viruses are reported sporadically in respiratory infection and amongst children in particular. This study is aimed to assess the potential role of HPeV and SAFV in respiratory infection in Hong Kong.

Methods: Between May 2013 and April 2014, nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPA) were collected from hospitalized patients who have respiratory infection. The collected samples were tested negative for respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus, influenza A and B viruses, parainfluenza viruses types 1, 2 and 3 by direct immunofluorescence. RT-PCR was used to target the HPeV and SAFV corresponding region of 5'UTR and analyze by the BioEdit sequence Alignment Editor and Basic Local Alignment Search Tool.

Results: 597 female and 603 male were included in 1200 NPA samples. 20% of these samples were under the age of 5. However, there were no HPeV and SAFV detected in all 1200 NPA samples.

Conclusion: To reveal the possible association between viruses and respiratory infection, the sampling size and district area should be expanded. The single detection method may not be able to detect all the viruses in the current study.