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. OBJECTIVE: To determine HBoV prevalence in children with lower acute respiratory infection. METHODS: We 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. RESULTS: The 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. CONCLUSION: Overall, 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.