Epidemiological and clinical features of human metapneumovirus in hospitalised paediatric patients with acute respiratory illness: a cross-sectional study in Southern China, from 2013 to 2016

OBJECTIVES: Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is one of the most important respiratory viral pathogens affecting infants and children worldwide. Our study describes the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of HMPV present in patients hospitalised with acute respiratory illness (ARI) in Guangzhou, Southern China. STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. SETTING: Two tertiary hospitals in Guangzhou. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Throat swabs were collected over a 3-year period from 5133 paediatric patients (≤14 years) hospitalised with ARI. Patients who are HMPV positive with clinical presentations (101/103) were recorded for further analysis. RESULTS: Of the 5133 patients included in the study, 103 (2.0%) were positive for HMPV. HMPV was more prevalent in children ≤5 years (2.2%, 98/4399) compared with older children (>5–14 years) (0.7%, 5/734) (P=0.004). Two seasonal HMPV peaks were observed each year and mainly occurred in spring and early summer. Overall, 18.4% (19/103) of patients who are HMPV positive were codetected with other pathogens, most frequently respiratory syncytial virus (36.8%, 7/19). Patients who are HMPV positive presented with a wide spectrum of clinical features, including cough (100.0%, 101/101), abnormal pulmonary breath sound (91.1%, 92/101), fever (88.1%, 89/101), expectoration (77.2%, 78/101), coryza (50.5%, 51/101) and wheezing (46.5%, 47/101). The main diagnosis of patients who are HMPV positive was bronchopneumonia (66.7%, 56/84). Fever (≥38˚C) (91.6%, 76/83) was detected more often in patients with only HMPV detected than in patients with HMPV plus other pathogen(s) detected (72.2%, 13/18) (P=0.037), whereas diarrhoea was more common in patients with HMPV plus other pathogen(s) detected (22.2%, 4/18), compared with patients with HMPV only (3.6%, 3/83) (P=0.018). CONCLUSIONS: HMPV is an important respiratory pathogen in children with ARI in Guangzhou, particularly in children ≤5 years old. HMPV has a seasonal variation. Bronchopneumonia is a major diagnosis in patients who are HMPV positive.