Etiology of viral diseases in a tertiary care center in Saudi Arabia

In order to establish the prevalence and etiology of viral diseases at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia, clinical specimens from 38.978 patients were retrospectively evaluated over a 7 year period [1988-1994]. Virus particles were detected in clinical specimens from 3434 [8.8%] patients. The most common virus was herpes simplex [1646 patients], followed by cytomegalovirus [798 patients] and rotavirus [593 patients]. There were also 202 patients positive for adenovirus, 60 for respiratory syncytial virus, 29 for influenza, 8 for parainfluenza, 75 for enterovirus and 23 for varicella-zoster virus. The trends and characteristics of these findings in a specific Saudi population are discussed