The Article “Human metapnuemovirus infections in hospitalized children and comparison with other respiratory viruses. 2005-2014 prospective study”, has been published in PLoS ONE 2017.
Among the authors, Cristina Calvo participated in the study on behalf of Hospital Universitario La Paz, a partner of the TEDDY Network.
In this publication, the authors described the results of a prospective study carried out on children with acute respiratory infections to analyse clinical and epidemiological features of Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) single and multiple infections.
HMPV infections have a significant burden of disease in many countries around the world with a recognised etiological role in acute lower respiratory diseases in children less than five years.
A total of 3.906 children, between one month of life and 14 years of age, admitted to the secondary public hospital Severo Ochoa (Leganés, Madrid) between September 2005 and June 2014 were enrolled. HMPV was detected in 5.5% of cases and, in up to 38% of patients, it was detected in coinfection with other viruses, mainly with adenovirus and rhinovirus. Recurrent wheezing and bronchiolitis were the main clinical diagnosis, usually associated with fever and hypoxia.
Moreover, authors specifically compared HMPV infections with those caused by other respiratory viruses such as rhinovirus, adenovirus or human bocavirus. These viruses affected older children compared to HMPV with a higher proportion of pneumonia. In HMPV infection the clinical data were very similar to respiratory syncytial virus infections, but children affected were younger.
Seasonal distribution was also different from the others viral infections analysed, with 90.7% cases detected between February and May.
Considering the significant contribution of HMPV to children hospitalization, improved knowledge on clinical diagnosis and epidemiological features maybe useful to develop vaccines as preventive strategy to reduce children hospitalization.
The article is available at this link.