Surveillance of enteroviruses from paediatric patients attended at a tertiary hospital in Catalonia from 2014 to 2017

Cristina Andrés, Jorgina Vila, Laura Gimferrer, Maria Piñana, Juliana Esperalba, Maria Gema Codina, Meritxell Barnés, Maria Carmen Martín, Francisco Fuentes, Susana Rubio, Pilar Alcubilla, Carlos Rodrigo, Tomàs Pumarola, Andrés Antón

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearch

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Background: Enterovirus (EV) infections are usually asymptomatic or mild, but symptomatic infections can evolve to severe complications. Outbreaks of EV-A71 and EV-D68 have been recently reported worldwide, sometimes related to severe clinical outcomes. Objective: To describe EV genetic diversity and the clinical outcomes from paediatric patients attended at a tertiary university hospital in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) from 2014 to 2017. Study design: Specimens were collected from paediatric (<17 years old) cases with suspicion of respiratory tract infection or EV infection. EV laboratory-confirmation was performed by specific real-time multiplex RT-PCR assay. Partial viral VP1 protein was sequenced for genetic characterisation by phylogenetic analyses. Results: A total of 376 (7%) from 5703 cases were EV laboratory-confirmed. Phylogenetic analyses of VP1 (210; 81%) sequences distinguished up to 27 different EV types distributed within EV-A (82; 40%), EV-B (90; 42%), EV-C (5; 2%), and EV-D (33; 15%), in addition to 50 (19%) rhinoviruses. The most predominant were EV-A71 (37; 45%) and EV-D68 (32; 99%). EV-A71 was highly related to neurological complications (25/39, 63%), of which 20/39 were rhombencephalitis, and most EV-D68 (28/32, 88%) were associated with lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), and exceptionally one (3%) with acute flaccid paralysis. Conclusions: EV-A71 and EV-D68 were the most detected EV in respiratory specimens. EV-A71 was highly related to neurological disease and EV-D68 was often associated with LRTI. However, both potential relatedness to neurological diseases makes the monitoring of EV circulation obligatory.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)29-35
JournalJournal of Clinical Virology
Volume110
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2019

Keywords

  • Enteroviruses
  • Genetic diversity
  • Molecular epidemiology
  • Paediatric population
  • Respiratory infections
  • Surveillance

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