Investigation of community-acquired and nosocomial respiratory syncytial virus and other viral respiratory infections in children

Although respiratory viruses are known as the major causes of community-acquired respiratory tract infections all over the world, they can also cause serious nosocomial respiratory infections and hospital outbreaks. The aim of this study is to investigate the incidence of community-acquired and nosocomial RSV and other viral respiratory tract infections in children hospitalized at Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine. Nasopharyngeal swab samples were taken from 100 children aged 0-16 years with suspected community-acquired (60) and nosocomial (40) respiratory tract infections between September 2018 and June 2021. ARVI Screen Real-TM PCR (Sacace Biotechnologies, Italy), a multiplex real-time PCR test for the diagnosis of respiratory viruses and Influenza A/B r-gene real-time PCR test (Argene, BioMérieux, France) for the detection of influenza A and B viruses were used. Of children with community-acquired respiratory tract infections, 65% (39/60) was positive for at least one virus and the rate of coinfection in this group was 35.9% (14/39). In children with nosocomial respiratory tract infection, positivity was detected to be 62.5% (25/40) and coinfection rate was 40% (10/25). The most predominant virus in community-acquired respiratory tract infections was influenza A virus (25%), followed by ADV (18.3%), hBoV (15%), RSV 11.7% and RhV (10%). In nosocomial viral respiratory tract infections, the most common virus was RSV (20%), followed by influenza A virus (12.5%), RhV (12.5%), ADV (12.5%), hMpV (10%) and hBoV (10%). In conclusion, early diagnosis of respiratory viral infections with real-time PCR test is important in terms of reducing morbidity and mortality, applying control methods to prevent the spread of nosocomial viruses, shortening the hospitalization period, preventing the use of unnecessary antibiotics and giving appropriate antiviral treatment.