The highest prevalence of human metapneumovirus in Ahwaz children accompanied by acute respiratory infections

Purpose: The newly described human metapneumovirus (hMPV) has been recently discovered as an etiological agent of acute respiratory infections (ARTI) in infants and children. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of hMPV and its potential role as causative agent of ARTI in Ahwaz children. Methods: In the present study, we examined 124 nasal swabs from infants affected by ARTI for the presence of hMPV by RT-PCR technique. Results: Sixty-eight out of 124 (54.4%) cases were positive for hMPV which is the highest incidence of hMPV ever reported in the world, 94.1% of positive cases belonged to genotype A; whereas no B genotype was detected. Our positive hMPV children were affected by upper (URTI) as well as lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI); however, LARTIs had higher prevalence. Conclusions: We suggest a probable role of F protein alteration as the causative agent for the highest prevalence of hMPV infection among Ahvaz children