Short communicationGenotype circulation pattern of human respiratory syncytial virus in Iran

- This research was the report of the long term study of circulation pattern of HRSV in Iran.
- We tested throat swabs specimens from 485 children under 2 years of age for HRSV during 2007-2013.
- We did phylogenetic analysis on the HRSV positive samples.
- We found different circulation patterns of HRSV groups A and B during seven consecutive years.

In order to have information on the molecular epidemiology and genetic circulation pattern of human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) in Iran, we studied the genetic variability of both group A and B HRSV strains during seven consecutive years by sequencing the hypervariable C-terminal domain of G protein. A total of 485 children <2 years of age who were negative for influenza viruses, screened for the presence of HRSV in this research. HRSV was detected in 94 (19.38%) of the samples using nested RT-PCR. Group A viruses were isolated during each year, while group B viruses were isolated during 2009 and 2013. Phylogenetic analysis showed that all HRSV group A viruses belonged to three genotypes: GA1, GA2, GA5 and the group B viruses were in BA genotype.