E-Book 2nd Congress
- No Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus but SARS-CoV-2 in children under 5 years old referred to Children Medical Center in 2021, Tehran, Iran
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Arash Letafati,1,* Nafiseh Bahari,2
1. Department of Virology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- Introduction: Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are one of the leading causes of illness and death among community members worldwide. Viral infections are the most common agents estimated to be involved in these patients. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (hRSV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) among children with ARIs.
- Methods: This study evaluated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and hRSV infection in 168 throat and nasopharyngeal swab samples using Real-time PCR. All samples were collected from children under five years old with ARIs who attended in children’s Medical Center, Tehran, Iran and sent to the Iranian National Influenza Center with appropriate conditions in 2021. Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used for comparison of the data of the prevalence of hRSV and SARS-CoV-2 infections among children.
- Results: Of the 168 patients examined, 95(56.5%) were male and 73 (43.5%) female Out of the 47 (28%) were younger than one years and 121 (72%) cases were 1 to 5 years old. The most common clinical manifestation of patients was cough (78%), nausea (31%), diarrhea (27%) and fever (18%). Among 168 patients, no hRSV was detected, while the SARS-CoV-2 genome was identified in 16 (9/5%) patients. Among 16 positive cases of SARS-CoV-2, 8 (50%), 2 (12%) and 6 (38%) were under 1 years old,1 to 3 years old and 3 to 5 years old respectively.
- Conclusion: This study was performed at cold months of the year but due to COVID-19 pandemic and adherence to health protocols, school closures and virtual classes, no cases of hRSV infection were identified.
- Keywords: Respiratory Tract Infection, SARS-CoV-2, hRSV, Prevalence