Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of children with human parainfluenza virus associated acute respiratory infection in a general hospital in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Background: Human parainfluenza viruses (HPIVs) are one of the leading cause of Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) in children. The prevalence and clinical presentation of HPIV infection in Sri Lankan children is not studied well, therefore the objective of this study was to identify the prevalence and clinical features of HPIV infections in children with ARI in General Hospital, Kegalle, Sri Lanka. Methods: Nasopharyngeal aspirate samples (NPA) were collected from hospitalized children with ≤4 days history of ARIs and were tested for HPIV-1, HIPV-2 and HIPV-3 using Direct immunofluorescence assay (DFA). Results: HPIV was detected in 9.4% (47/500) of the children with ARIs. Of this 5 (0.1%) children had HPIV-1 infection, 8 (1.6%) had HPIV-2 infection and 34 (6.8%) had HPIV-3 infection with a male to female ratio of 1.13: 1. Children infected with HPIV-1 and HPIV-3 had moderate bronchiolitis whereas HPIV-2, had mild bronchiolitis. Of the 34 HPIV-3 infected children, 11 had co-infection with human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) and 2 had co-infection with influenza A and B, respectively. Two children had co-infection with HPIV-1 and HPIV-2. HPIV-3 circulated throughout the year, however, HPIV-2 circulated only in February and March 2017 in the study area during the study. Conclusion: HPIV infections led to a wide range of symptoms in children and are prevalent throughout the year in the study area. HPIV-3 was the most prevalent HPIV type in the study sample and were associated with mild to moderate ARI in children less than 5 years of age.

Keywords

• Acute respiratory infections
• Human parainfluenza viruses
• Epidemiology
• Children
• Sri Lanka