OBJECTIVETo find out the status of human metapneumovirus (hMPV) infection in children under 14 years old with acute respiratory tract infections (ARI) in Guangzhou, analyze the epidemiology and clinical characteristics among the hMPV-infected children, and provide some basis for research of hMPV.

METHODSAll 521 throat and pharyngeal swabs were collected among the children with acute respiratory tract infections in outpatient departments and those admitted to the wards from September 2006 to August 2008. Then total nucleic acid was extracted from respiratory specimens. The 213 nucleosides of nucleoprotein gene were detected by RT-PCR and 16 strong positive samples were picked to compare with the sequence of hMPV in GenBank after the sequence of the amplification products were determined. Then applied statistical analysis to the data of the collected patients.

RESULTSAll 521 samples were detected by RT-PCR, and confirmed that N gene was positive in 39 samples with a detection rate of 7.49%, and the peak time was in October and April. The 16 amplification products were compared by using the analysis of gene sequence. The nucleocapsid protein (N) gene similarity to BJ1897 of Beijing was up to 99%, and to AY550156 of Thailand was up to 97%, genotype B was the most common genotype.

CONCLUSIONThere existed hMPV infection in children acute respiratory system diseases in Guangzhou areas, in which the children under the age of 6 years were accounted for the main group, however there was no difference in gender. The main symptoms of the patients with hMPV infection were high fever and cough symptom of catarrh. Co-infections other than respiratory virus with hMPV were detected as 41.03% of positive samples.