Prevalence, molecular characterization, and clinical features of human bocavirus in children under 5 years of age with acute gastroenteritis admitted to a specialized children's hospital in Iran: A cross-sectional study.

Background and Aims: Although some reports have confirmed the role of human bocavirus (HBoV) in respiratory infections, the importance of this virus in causing acute gastroenteritis has not yet been proven. This study aimed to determine the molecular prevalence of HBoV in children under 5 years old with gastroenteritis and to compare the clinical symptoms of HBoV-positive and -negative gastroenteritis cases. Methods: A total of 100 stool samples were collected from children with gastroenteritis hospitalized in a pediatric hospital in Tehran, Iran. Demographic and clinical data were collected from patients' medical records. Viral genomic DNA was extracted from stool samples and amplified using the PCR assay. Finally, sequencing was used to determine the genotype of HBoV. Results: The HBoV genome was detected in 14 samples (14%). The highest prevalence of HBoV was observed in the age range of 24-60 months (n = 5; 35.7%); However, no statistically significant relationship was observed between the prevalence of HBoV and age groups (p = 0.09). Nine (64.3%) and 5 (35.7%) HBoV-positive cases were boys and girls, respectively (p = 0.45). Fever, vomiting, and heartache were seen in 5 (35.7%), 3 (21.4%), and 1 (7.1%) HBoV-positive patients, respectively. Overall, no significant difference was observed in any of the investigated clinical manifestations between patients positive or negative for HBoV. Five HBoV-positive samples were subjected to sequencing and all five sequenced samples were genotype 3. Conclusion: HBoV infections can be considered a risk factor for causing at least a portion of acute gastroenteritis cases in children under 5 years of age.

Worldwide prevalence and genotype distribution of human astrovirus in gastroenteritis patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIM: Human astrovirus (HAstV) is an important causative agent of gastroenteritis in humans, which mainly infects young children and the elderly. The goal of this study was to conduct a meta-analytic review of the prevalence of HAstV amongst patients with gastroenteritis, and to shed light on the connection between HAstV infection and gastroenteritis. METHODS: Systematic literature searches were conducted to identify all potentially relevant studies recorded up to April 8th, 2022. For study weighting, the inverse variance method was employed and the random-effects model was applied to evaluate data. For case-control studies, the pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to establish the relationship between HAstV infection and gastroenteritis. RESULTS: Among 302423 gastroenteritis patients from 69 different countries, the overall pooled prevalence of HAstV infection was 3.48% (95% CI: 3.11%-3.89%). Case-control approach was used in 39 investigations, and the overall prevalence of HAstV infection among the 11342 healthy controls was 2.01% (95% CI: 1.40%-2.89%). Gastroenteritis and HAstV infection were associated with a pooled OR of 2.16 (95% CI: 1.72-2.71; P < 0.0001; I2 = 33.7%). The most commonly found HAstV genotypes in gastroenteritis patients were HAstV1 (62.18%), HAstV7 (33.33%), and HAstV-MLB1 (17.43%). CONCLUSION: The frequency of HAstV infection was the highest in children under the age of five, and in developing countries. The prevalence rate of HAstV was not influenced by gender. Semi-nested and nested RT-PCR were highly sensitive assays for detecting HAstV infections.