Evaluation of the prevalence and seasonality of human parainfluenza virus over five year period in pediatric patients

Objective: Human Parainfluenza viruses (HPIVs) cause respiratory tract infections, and the second most common cause of acute respiratory illness-related hospitalizations after the respiratory syncytial virus in children <5 years of age. The aim of the study; determination of HPIVs positivity and common types in pediatric patients with respiratory tract infection; investigation the distribution of HPIV positivity by age groups, months and seasons, respectively. Material and Method: HPIV results of 1613 pediatric patients who were sent to the molecular virology laboratory from various pediatric clinics of Gazi Hospital between March 2016 and February 2021 (five years period) were investigated. Nucleic acid isolation was performed on the EZ1 Advanced (Qiagen, Germany) device using the EZ1 Virus Mini Kit by the manufacturer's protocol. Results: HPIV positivity was detected as 4.1% in clinical samples and, the most common HPIV type was found to be HPIV-3 (55%). The distribution of other HPIV types were; HPIV-2, HPIV-4 and HPIV-1 with 26%, 23% and 14%, respectively. HPIV-3 is the most common type in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019; however, HPIV-1 is the most common type in 2020. HPIVs co-infection was detected with other respiratory tract viruses in 51% of samples. The highest HPIV co-infection was detected in Rhinovirus. The highest HPIV positivity rate (45%) were determined in the 0-2 age group compared to other age groups (p<0.05). The highest positivity rate was in October in the autumn season (p<0.05), the lowest was in January and February in winter. The highest rate (8.1%) of HPIV positivity was found in 2016 and the lowest rate (0.7%) was in 2020. Conclusions: Since it is not possible to diagnose viral etiology of respiratory tract infections based on clinical findings, viral respiratory tract panel and Multiplex real-time PCR test are a fast and useful method in early diagnosis, treatment decision and prevention of unnecessary antibiotic use. HPIVs positivity is seen at higher rates in children aged 0-2 and in autumn months with seasonal differences.