Korean J Lab Med.  2011 Jul;31(3):179-184. 10.3343/kjlm.2011.31.3.179.

Human Bocavirus in Patients with Respiratory Tract Infection

• Kim JS
• Lim CS
• Kim YK
• Lee KN
• Lee CK

• KMID: 1735851
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3343/kjlm.2011.31.3.179

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Human bocavirus (HBoV) is a newly identified viral pathogen, and its clinical epidemiology and significance in respiratory infections have not yet been completely elucidated. We investigated the prevalence of HBoV infection and the association between viral (HBoV) load and clinical features of the infection in patients of all age-groups.
METHODS
Nasopharyngeal aspirates from patients with symptoms of respiratory infection were tested for presence of HBoV by using real-time polymerase chain reaction. HBoV-positive patients were categorized into low- and high-viral-load groups using 1.0x10(6) copies/mL as the threshold value of viral load.
RESULTS
Detection rate of HBoV was 4.8% (N=93) in a total of 1,926 samples with peak incidence of infection being observed in patients aged 6-12 months. HBoV infection was more frequently observed in young children, especially, in children aged less than 5 yr, and the HBoV load decreased with increase in age. HBoV was codetected with other respiratory viruses in 17 (18.3%) of the 93 HBoV-positive patients and 15 patients (88.2%) belonged to the low-viral-load group. Patients infected with HBoV alone showed a higher viral load than those patients in whom HBoV was codetected with other respiratory viruses (median load, 3.78x10(5) copies/mL vs. 1.94x10(4) copies/mL, P=0.014). Higher pulse rate (P=0.007) and respiratory rate (P=0.021) were observed in patients with a high-viral-load.
CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that HBoV may be the causative agent of respiratory infection in the high-viral-load group.

Keyword

Bocavirus; Respiratory tract infections; Viral load

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Child
Child, Preschool
DNA, Viral/analysis
Female
Human bocavirus/*isolation & purification
Humans
Infant
Male
Middle Aged
Nasopharynx/virology
Parvoviridae Infections/diagnosis/*epidemiology/virology
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Prevalence
Respiratory Tract Infections/diagnosis/*epidemiology/virology
Viral Load

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Seasonal distribution of human bocavirus infection during the study period of 1 yr.

• 

  Fig. 2 HBoV viral load distribution of cases with HBoV infection alone and of cases in which HBoV was codetected with other viruses. The dotted line indicates the cut-off between the high-and the low-viral-load groups. The dashed lines indicate the median of each group.Abbreviation: HBoV, human bocavirus.

• 

  Fig. 3 Distribution of viral load in HBoV-positive patients according to diseases.Abbreviation: HBoV, human bocavirus.

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