RESUMO
Objective To analyze the status of human metapneumovirus in children with respiratory tract infection in Shenz-hen and Shantou and the clinical characteristics of the diseases with hMPV infection.Methods The viral nucleic acid of 1 217 samples were amplified by RT-PCR(1 137 from children with respiratory tract infection,80 from health children),and five positive PCR products were chosen randomly for sequencing.Nucleotide sequences alignment and phylogenetic analysis were performed with DNAstar software.The clinical data of the children with hMPV infection were analyzed.Results The positive rate of hMPV infection identified from 1 137 children wtith respiratory tract infection was 4.49% (51/1 137), hMPV was significantly prevalent in February,March and April.Most of the positive cases was under 3 years old.Five hMPV gene fragments of sequence were closely related to hMPV in the GenBank.Similarity of hMPV partial N gene with which published at nucleotide levels varied from 80.8%~98.4%.Phylogenetic tree of nucleotide revealed two different gen-otypes.All hMPV positive patients suffered from fever,cough and wheezing.The clinical diagnoses were wheezing pneumo-nia (17),bronchiolitis (9).None of the nasal swabs from 80 healty subjects were tested hMPV specific gene fragment.Con-clusion hMPV is an important viral pathogen in children with respiratory tract infection in Shenzhen and Shantou.Two genotypes may circurate in these areas.