Human coronaviruses in severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases in southwest India

• Published in: Journal of medical virology Vol. 88; no. 1; pp. 163 - 165
• Main Authors: Suresha, Prabhu G., Akhil, Chameettachal, Anjali, Aithal, Giselle, Dsouza R., Revti, Bhaskar, Arunkumar, Govindakarnavar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2016; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Child, Preschool; Coronaviridae Infections - epidemiology; Coronaviridae Infections - pathology; Coronaviridae Infections - virology; Coronavirus - classification; Coronavirus - isolation & purification; Cross-Sectional Studies; Epidemiology; Female; HCoV; Humans; India - epidemiology; Infant; Influenza virus; Male; MERS; Middle Aged; Pharynx - virology; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Prevalence; Respiratory syncytial virus; Respiratory Tract Infections - epidemiology; Respiratory Tract Infections - pathology; Respiratory Tract Infections - virology; Retrospective Studies; SARI; SARS; SARS coronavirus; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Short Communication; Short Communications; southwest India; Virology; Young Adult; India; prevalence; SARS; HCoV; SARI; MERS; southwest India
• ISSN: 0146-6615; 1096-9071
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.24296

Acute viral respiratory infections (AVRI) are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among all age groups globally. Except for Influenza virus and Respiratory Syncytial virus, mostly viral aetiology of AVRI remains undiagnosed. Lately, human coronaviruses (HCoVs) have emerged as an important aetiology of AVRI. A laboratory based retrospective cross sectional study was conducted in which respiratory samples (throat swabs) of patients (n = 864), with Influenza negative SARI, of all age groups between Jan 2011–Dec 2012 were tested for HCoVs including MERS‐CoV using Conventional and real time PCR assays. The prevalence of HCoV among SARI cases was 1.04% (9/864) [95% CI: 0.36–1.72]. Of these four (44.44%) were identified as HCoV OC43, three (33.33%) as HCoV NL63 and two (22.22%) as HCoV 229E. No HCoV HKU1 was detected. The samples were also negative for SARS‐CoV and MERS‐CoV. The results of this study documents low prevalence of human coronaviruses in SARI cases in south western India and the absence of highly pathogenic human coronaviruses. As the study included only SARI cases the prevalence reported could be an under estimate when it is extrapolated to community. J. Med. Virol. 88:163–165, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.