Epidemiological and clinical evaluation of children with respiratory virus infections

BACKGROUND Respiratory viruses are the leading cause of respiratory tract infections among children and are responsible for causing morbidity and mortality worldwide. This study was performed to detect viruses in children with respiratory infections and describe their epidemiology and clinical characteristics. METHODS In this descriptive cross sectional study, throat swabs and wash specimens from 202 children younger than six years of age with diagnosis of a respiratory tract infection from a total of 897 specimens were evaluated using multiplex PCR method. RESULTS Respiratory viruses were detected in 92 children: respiratory synsytial virus, 16.8%; influenza virus, 5.4%; parainfluenza virus, 8.4%; adenovirus, 14.4% and human metapneumo virus 0.49% with male predominance and higher distribution in children younger than 1 year of age with preference in the cold months of year. The clinical presentations of all detected viruses were almost similar. CONCLUSION In the present study, nine different respiratory viruses were detected. RSV causes the great majority of respiratory virus infections in children. There was no significant difference in epidemiologic patterns of these viruses in comparison to other studies.