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.
【저자키워드】 coronavirus, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-HKU1, Real-time PCR, respiratory virus, clinical impact, HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63, 【초록키워드】 coronavirus, serology, children, Human, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-HKU1, diagnostic, Respiratory illness, virus, Screening, ARI, Severity Score, Real-time PCR, respiratory virus, respiratory syncytial virus, Patient, age, circulation, infectious, respiratory, assay, RT-rtPCR, specimen, clinical severity score, random, positive, transcriptase, aetiology, tract, compared, detected, tested, respiratory specimen, different, develop, peaked, were used, reduce, assigned,