ABSTRACT
Introduction: Various pathogens cause respiratory tract infections in children of <5 years of age causing severe morbidity and mortality. The profile of causative agents varies from place to place. Aims: The objectives of our study were to detect the profile and trends of respiratory pathogens causing acute respiratory tract infection in children using a custom multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and to develop a diagnostic algorithm. Materials and Methods: A total of 997 children with clinical manifestations of respiratory infections were included in the study. Their nasopharyngeal aspirate and throat swab samples were subjected to nucleic acid extraction followed by multiplex RT-PCR for eighteen viruses and six bacteria. Statistical Analysis Used: Chi-square test was employed to study the P value of different viruses and bacteria. Results: A total of 765 (76.73%) samples were found to be positive for one of the respiratory pathogens. Viruses were detected in 598 (59.98%) and bacteria in 167 (41.85%) samples, respectively. The prevalence of single and co-infections among viruses and bacteria were 77.76% and 22.24%, 81.44% and 18.56% each, respectively. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) A/B and Streptococcus pneumoniae were the most predominant pathogens detected in the study and were associated with lower respiratory tract infections. Conclusion: RSV and S. pneumoniae were the most common pathogens detected, higher prevalence was observed in children <1 year of age. Viruses were predominant during winter months. The study helped to prepare diagnostic algorithm which will help in reducing diagnostic costs. However, further studies are required to assess whether viruses are bystander or real pathogens and include larger panel of bacteria and viruses for diagnosis.