Abstract

Acute respiratory tract infections caused by viruses in children pose a heavy burden of morbidity and mortality worldwide. This was a cross sectional study conducted over a period of 6 months on children aged between 0-9 years attending the outpatient department of pediatrics in a tertiary care hospital, presenting with signs and symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections. A total of 96 clinically suspected upper respiratory tract infection children were recruited in the study. The nasopharyngeal swabs were collected in VTM, processed by subjecting to RNA isolation and viruses detected by Multiplex RT-PCR (RespiFinder® 2SMART multiplex RTPCR kit). The results were analyzed by melt curve analysis to know the prevalence of different viruses. The viral positivity was seen in 66 out of 96 samples (68.7%). The viral detection rate decreased with increasing age of the study group. The most common virus identified was RSV A (30.4%) while the least common virus was human coronavirus C229E (1.2%). The coinfection rate was 21.2% (positive for more than one virus). The most common viruses showing coinfection with other viruses were PIV 4 and PIV 2 followed by hMPV, INF A, PIV 3, PIV 1 and RSV B. The risk factors like prematurity, low birth weight, partial immunization and overcrowding showed significant association with viral positivity. The prevalence of viral URTI in our study was high. An effective evidence on prevalence study can help in deciding the diagnostic priorities and devising local protocols for routine diagnosis.

Key words: Acute upper respiratory tract infection (AURTI), Multiplex PCR, Risk factors, Viral pathogens