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Epidemiology and Seasonality of Endemic Human Coronaviruses in South African and Zambian Children: A Case-Control Pneumonia Study

Authors :
Vicky L. Baillie
David P. Moore
Azwifarwi Mathunjwa
Daniel E. Park
Donald M. Thea
Geoffrey Kwenda
Lawrence Mwananyanda
Shabir A. Madhi
Source :
Viruses, Vol 13, Iss 8, p 1513 (2021)
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2021.

Abstract

Endemic human coronaviruses (HCoV) are capable of causing a range of diseases from the common cold to pneumonia. We evaluated the epidemiology and seasonality of endemic HCoVs in children hospitalized with clinical pneumonia and among community controls living in countries with a high HIV burden, namely South Africa and Zambia, between August 2011 to October 2013. Nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs were collected from all cases and controls and tested for endemic HCoV species and 12 other respiratory viruses using a multiplex real-time PCR assay. We found that the likelihood of detecting endemic HCoV species was higher among asymptomatic controls than cases (11% vs. 7.2%; 95% CI: 1.2–2.0). This was however only observed among children > 6 months and was mainly driven by the Betacoronavirus endemic species (HCoV-OC43 and –HKU1). Endemic HCoV species were detected through the year; however, in Zambia, the endemic Betacoronavirus species tended to peak during the winter months (May–August). There was no association between HIV status and endemic HCoV detection.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
19994915
Volume :
13
Issue :
8
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Viruses
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.63ae5e724d354dfe9a6662ffe9e4b7e2
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/v13081513