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Human Metapneumovirus and Community-Acquired Respiratory Illness in Children

2003; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Volume: 9; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3201/eid0905.020615

1080-6059

Diego Vicente, Gustavo Cilla, Marisa Montes, Emilio Pérez‐Trallero,

Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Studies

To the Editor: Stockton et al. have reported the detection of human metapneumovirus (HMPV) by using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in patients with influenzalike illness (1).These authors examined specimens submitted from patients, mainly adults, during winter 2000-01 and identified HMPV in 2.2% of patients with influenzalike illness who had tested negative for influenza virus and human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV).Although several papers have been published on HMPV infection in children (2-4), the real impact of this virus on the health of the pediatric population remains to be determined.The data we obtained in the present study support the epidemiologic findings of J. Stockton et al. (1) and reinforce the notion that HMPV is a human pathogen associated with community-acquired acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI).We investigated the occurrence of HMPV in children 80%) affected the lower respiratory tract.Of these children, 379 were hospitalized and 186 were discharged without admission.Hospital Donostia belongs to the