High prevalence of human bocavirus 1 in infants with lower acute respiratory tract disease in Argentina, 2007 – 2009

Human bocavirus (HBoV) is a parvovirus whose association with respiratory disease is currently under investigation.ObjectiveTo determine HBoV prevalence in children with lower acute respiratory infection.MethodsWe investigated HBoV in 433 nasopharyngeal aspirates collected in 2007–2009 from children 0 to 5 years old hospitalized with bronchiolitis or pneumonia in Córdoba, Argentina.ResultsThe general prevalence of HBoV was 21.5% and the positive cases (HBoV+) were more frequent during winter and spring. The mean age of HBoV+ patients was 6.9 months, with 87.1% of the detections corresponding to infants less than 1 year old (among which the prevalence of HBoV was 26.3% in patients < 3 months of age, 22.1% in 3 to 6 months, 25.3% in 6 to 9 months, and 18.8% in 9 to 12 months). The sequence analysis of the NP1 coding region of 15 isolates showed that all isolates from Cordoba were HBoV1 which exhibited a homology of nearly 100% both among themselves and with the originally discovered virus from 2005.ConclusionOverall, our results indicate that HBoV is a significant pathogen that contributes to acute respiratory infection both on its own and during coinfection with other viruses.