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. 2020 Jul;69(7):1005-1012.
doi: 10.1099/jmm.0.001219.

Human bocavirus (HBoV) in Kuwait: molecular epidemiology and clinical outcome of the virus among patients with respiratory diseases

Nada M Madi  1 , Anfal Al-Adwani  1
Affiliations

Human bocavirus (HBoV) in Kuwait: molecular epidemiology and clinical outcome of the virus among patients with respiratory diseases

Nada M Madi et al. J Med Microbiol. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

Introduction. Globally, human bocavirus (HBoV) has been detected in respiratory samples from patients suffering from upper and lower respiratory diseases. In Kuwait, little is known about the epidemiological and clinical characterization of the virus and genetic characterization of the virus as a respiratory pathogen is unknown.Aim. This study aims to explore the molecular epidemiology and clinical features of HBoV isolates in patients with respiratory diseases.Methodology. Retrospectively, between 2018 and 2020, 5941 respiratory samples from patients with respiratory diseases were screened for respiratory viruses using multiplex real-time PCR. Samples that were positive for HBoV were then subjected to NP1 and VP1/PV2 phylogenetic analysis.Results. HBoV was detected in 1.9 % of the patients, with a peak incidence of infection among children <1 year old. Co-infection with other respiratory viruses was observed in 56.8 % of HBoV-positive patients. Fever, cough and respiratory distress were the most common clinical features of HBoV infection. Phylogenetic analysis of the Kuwaiti HBoV isolates revealed that all the isolates were of the HBoV-1 genotype, with slight sequence variations among the isolates.Conclusion. This study illustrated the predominance of the HBoV-1 genotype in patients with respiratory diseases in Kuwait with minimal genetic variability. It also highlighted the clinical features of HBoV-1 infection, verifying its role in respiratory diseases.

Keywords: Kuwait; bocavirus; epidemiology; respiratory patients.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Distribution of HBoV-positive patients by age.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Monthly distribution of HBoV-positive cases from January 2018 to January 2020.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Phylogenetic analysis of partial sequences of the NP1 and VP1/VP2 genes (≈748) of 36 HBoV-1 isolates from patients. The topology tree was constructed using the maximum-likelihood method and mega 7.0. The stability of the tree was evaluated by using 1000 bootstrap replicates. Only bootstrap values greater than 70 % are shown on the branch. ■, HBoV-1 sequence from GenBank; ●, HBoV-2 sequence from GenBank; ▲, HBoV-3 sequence from GenBank and ▼, HBoV-4 sequence from GenBank.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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