Title Surveillance of enteroviruses from paediatric patients attended at a tertiary hospital in Catalonia from 2014 to 2017.
Author Andres, Cristina; Vila, Jorgina; Gimferrer, Laura; Pinana, Maria; Esperalba, Juliana; Codina, Maria Gema; Barnes, Meritxell; Martin, Maria Carmen; Fuentes, Francisco; Rubio, Susana; Alcubilla, Pilar; Rodrigo, Carlos; Pumarola, Tomas; Anton, Andres
Journal J Clin Virol Publication Year/Month 2019-Jan
PMID 30530096 PMCID PMC7172671
Affiliation + expend 1.Respiratory Viruses Unit, Virology Section, Microbiology Department, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Vall d'Hebron Research Institute, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

BACKGROUND: Enterovirus (EV) infections are usually asymptomatic or mild, but symptomatic infections can evolve to severe complications. Outbreaks of EV-A71 and EV-D68 have been recently reported worldwide, sometimes related to severe clinical outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To describe EV genetic diversity and the clinical outcomes from paediatric patients attended at a tertiary university hospital in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) from 2014 to 2017. STUDY DESIGN: Specimens were collected from paediatric (<17 years old) cases with suspicion of respiratory tract infection or EV infection. EV laboratory-confirmation was performed by specific real-time multiplex RT-PCR assay. Partial viral VP1 protein was sequenced for genetic characterisation by phylogenetic analyses. RESULTS: A total of 376 (7%) from 5703 cases were EV laboratory-confirmed. Phylogenetic analyses of VP1 (210; 81%) sequences distinguished up to 27 different EV types distributed within EV-A (82; 40%), EV-B (90; 42%), EV-C (5; 2%), and EV-D (33; 15%), in addition to 50 (19%) rhinoviruses. The most predominant were EV-A71 (37; 45%) and EV-D68 (32; 99%). EV-A71 was highly related to neurological complications (25/39, 63%), of which 20/39 were rhombencephalitis, and most EV-D68 (28/32, 88%) were associated with lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), and exceptionally one (3%) with acute flaccid paralysis. CONCLUSIONS: EV-A71 and EV-D68 were the most detected EV in respiratory specimens. EV-A71 was highly related to neurological disease and EV-D68 was often associated with LRTI. However, both potential relatedness to neurological diseases makes the monitoring of EV circulation obligatory.

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