Co-circulation of Four Human Coronaviruses (HCoVs) in Queensland Children with Acute Respiratory Tract Illnesses in 2004

Katherine E Arden,David J Speicher,Ian M Mackay,Michael D Nissen,Theo P Sloots,Ristan M Greer,Peter K Mcerlean,Nicholas T O’Neil

doi:10.3390/v4040637

Abstract

Acute respiratory illnesses (ARIs) with unconfirmed infectious aetiologies peak at different times of the year. Molecular diagnostic assays reduce the number of unconfirmed ARIs compared to serology- or culture-based techniques. Screening of 888 inpatient and outpatient respiratory specimens spanning late autumn through to early spring, 2004, identified the presence of a human coronavirus (HCoV) on 74 occasions (8.3% of all specimens and 26.3% of all respiratory virus detections). Prevalence peaked in August (late winter in the southern hemisphere) when they were detected in 21.9% of specimens tested. HCoV-HKU1 and HCoV-OC43 comprised 82.4% of all HCoVs detected. Positive specimens were used to develop novel reverse transcriptase real-time PCRs (RT-rtPCRs) for HCoV detection. An objective clinical severity score was assigned to each positive HCoV patient. Severity scores were similar to those from a random selection of young children who were positive for respiratory syncytial virus at a different time but from the same specimen population. During the cooler months of 2004, sensitive and specific RT-rtPCRs identified the concurrent circulation of all four HCoVs, a quarter of which co-occurred with another virus and most of which were from children under the age of two years.

Highlights

Acute respiratory illnesses (ARIs) are a frequent cause of paediatric morbidity and a common reason for outpatient visits and hospitalisations
We have previously identified instances of human coronavirus (HCoV)-HKU1 from samples collected during the winter of 2004 [43]
We previously identified that a pan-HCoV RT-PCR often failed to detect HCoV-HKU1 and HCoV-OC43 it was useful for HCoV-229E and HCoV-NL63 detection [43;44]

Summary

Introduction

Acute respiratory illnesses (ARIs) are a frequent cause of paediatric morbidity and a common reason for outpatient visits and hospitalisations. RNA viruses are the most frequent cause of “colds” and “influenza-like” illness (ILIs); usually self-limiting upper respiratory tract illnesses (URTIs) [1]. Human rhinoviruses (HRV), respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV), influenzaviruses (IFVs) adenoviruses (HAdV), metapneumovirus (HMPV) and parainfluenza viruses (HPIV) are among the most frequently sought respiratory viruses in the clinical microbiology laboratory [3,4,5,6,7]. Even when bacterial pathogens are added to this viral panel, 40–70% of suspected infections remain without laboratory confirmation [8,9,10].

Results

Discussion

Conclusion