Respiratory virus detection in the upper respiratory tract of asymptomatic, community-dwelling older people

• Published in: BMC infectious diseases Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 411 - 7
• Main Authors: Yasuda, Ikkoh, Suzuki, Motoi, Maeda, Haruka, Terada, Mayumi, Sando, Eiichiro, Ng, Chris Fook Sheng, Otomaru, Hirono, Yoshida, Lay-Myint, Morimoto, Konosuke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 28.04.2022; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Aged; Asymptomatic; Bacterial pneumonia; Community-acquired infections; Community-dwelling; Coronaviruses; Cross-Sectional Studies; Diagnosis; Disease transmission; Enterovirus Infections; Enteroviruses; Health aspects; Humans; Independent Living; Infectious diseases; Influenza; Influenza A; Influenza, Human - epidemiology; Methods; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; Nasopharynx; Older people; Pharynx; Pneumonia; Polymerase chain reaction; Prevalence; Respiratory tract; Respiratory Tract Infections - diagnosis; Respiratory Tract Infections - epidemiology; Respiratory virus; Rhinovirus; Risk factors; Saliva; Salivary diagnostics; Sampling; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Surveillance; Viruses; Viruses - genetics; Japan; San Luis Obispo California; United States > US; Polymerase chain reaction; Community-dwelling; Respiratory virus; Asymptomatic; Prevalence; Older people
• ISSN: 1471-2334; 1471-2334
• DOI: 10.1186/s12879-022-07355-w

The prevalence of virus positivity in the upper respiratory tract of asymptomatic community-dwelling older people remains elusive. Our objective was to investigate the prevalence of respiratory virus PCR positivity in asymptomatic community-dwelling older people using saliva samples and nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs. We analyzed 504 community-dwelling adults aged ≥ 65 years who were ambulatory and enrolled in a cross-sectional study conducted from February to December 2018 in Nagasaki city, Japan. Fourteen respiratory viruses were identified in saliva, nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal samples using multiplex PCR assays. The prevalences of PCR positivity for rhinovirus, influenza A, enterovirus and any respiratory virus were 12.9% (95% CI: 10.1-16.1%), 7.1% (95% CI: 5.1-9.8%), 6.9% (95% CI: 4.9-9.5%) and 25.2% (95% CI: 21.5-29.2%), respectively. Rhinovirus was detected in 21.5% of subjects, influenza A in 38.9% of subjects, enterovirus in 51.4% of subjects and any virus in 32.3% of subjects using only saliva sampling. The prevalences of several respiratory viruses were higher than the percentages reported previously in pharyngeal samples from younger adults. Saliva sampling is a potentially useful method for respiratory virus detection in asymptomatic populations.