Viral etiology of acute upper respiratory infection in Hebei Province from 2013 to 2015

Objective To investigate the viral etiology and the epidemilogy of acute upper respiratory tract infection in Hebei Province from 2013 to 2015, providing scientific basis for diagnosis, prevention and control of the respiratory tract infection. Methods 1 551 throat swab samples of the acute upper respiratory infection patients from four hospitals in Hebei Province were collected, Multiplex real-time PCR was used to detect 15 kinds of respiratory tract viruses for all specimens after nucleic acids extraction. Results Totally 714 positive samples were obtained from 1 551 samples, with a positive rate of 46.03%. Human rhinovirus(186, 11.99%)was detected as the most common viral species, followed by human parainfluenza 3(167,10.77%),respiratory syncytial virus (122,7.87%), adenovirus (108,6.96%),influenza B virus(56,3.61%), human metapneumovirus(40,2.58%), influenza A virus(39,2.51%), human boca virus (38,2.45%),human parainfluenza 1(35,2.26%),human coronavirus-229E/NL63(33,2.13%), human enterovirus (32, 2.06%), human parainfluenza 4(31,2.00%), human coronavirus-OC43(30,1.93%), and human parainfluenza 2(11,0.71%). 176 cases (11.35%) were detected as co-infection. The infection rate(56.07%) of under 5 years old group was higher than that of other groups. Conclusions The predominant respiratory viruses, who are responsible for acute upper respiratory tract infections in Hebei Province, are HRV, PIV3,RSV, ADV and IFV.Each virus possess the specific epidemiological feature.