Retrospective evaluation of other respiratory tract viruses in SARS-CoV-2 PCR negative patients

Objective: It was aimed to investigate other respiratory tract viruses by molecular diagnosis method real-time RT-PCR in clinical samples with negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR test, which were sent to Istanbul University (IU), Istanbul Medical Faculty, Department of Virology and Basic Immunology laboratory between March 2020 and March 2021 with the clinical pre-diagnosis of COVID-19. Materials and methods: The diagnosis of COVID-19 was made using the Bio-Speedy Viral Nucleic Acid Isolation kit and the Bio-Speedy COVID-19 RT-qPCR Detection Kit in the COVID-19 laboratory of Istanbul University (IU), Istanbul Medical Faculty, Department of Virology and Basic Immunology. Other respiratory tract viruses in COVID-19 negative samples were detected in Rotor Gene Q Real-Time PCR (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) device using Fast Track FTD Respiratory pathogens 21 kit with multiplex real-time RT-PCR method in Istanbul University (IU), Istanbul Medical Faculty, Department of Virology and Basic Immunology,Molecular Biology Laboratory. Results: Other respiratory tract viruses were detected positive in 52 of 397 patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR test. From 52 patients positive for other respiratory tract viruses, 35 (67%) were rhinovirus (RV) positive, 6 (11%) coronavirus (Cov) OC43, NL63, 229E, HKU1 positive, 2 (4%) adenovirus (AV) positive, 2 (4%) respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) positive, 1 (2%) enterovirus (EV) positive, 1 (2%) human metapneumovirus (HMPV) positive, 1 (2%) parainfluenza virus-4 (PIV-4) positive, 4 (8%) coinfection (RV+RSV, RV+AV, RV + human bocavirus (HboV), RSV+CoV 229E) were positively detected. Influenza (IV), PIV-1, PIV-2, PIV-3, human parechovirus (HpeV) were not detected. Conclusion: It was concluded that protective measures such as masks, distance, hand washing and isolation significantly reduced the spread of respiratory viruses.