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Epidemiology and clinical characteristics of infants with human parechovirus or human herpes virus‐6 detected in cerebrospinal fluid tested for enterovirus or herpes simplex virus
Author(s) -
Messacar Kevin,
Breazeale Garrett,
Wei Qi,
Robinson Christine C.,
Dominguez Samuel R.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.24119
Subject(s) - enterovirus , medicine , herpes simplex virus , epidemiology , pediatrics , encephalitis , white blood cell , virology , human herpesvirus 6 , virus , gastroenterology , viral disease , herpesviridae
Human parechovirus (HPeV) and human herpes virus‐6 (HHV‐6) are acquired commonly in infancy and associated with central nervous system infection. The prevalence of HPeV and HHV‐6 in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of infants tested for enterovirus (EV) and herpes‐simplex virus (HSV) is unknown. All stored CSF samples from EV or HSV testing in infants less than 6 months of age at Children's Hospital Colorado between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011 were tested for HPeV, HHV‐6, EV, and HSV by PCR. Clinical characteristics and epidemiological data were collected using retrospective electronic chart review. Of 239 infants tested, 29 cases of EV (12.1%), 7 cases of HPeV (2.9%), 5 cases of HHV‐6 (2.1%), and 5 cases of HSV (2.1%) were identified with no bacterial co‐infections. HPeV cases occurred between July and October in infants with median age of 24 days. Infants with HPeV had a median maximum temperature of 39 °C, median fever duration of 3 days and median peripheral white blood cell count of 5.2 × 10 3 /μL. HHV‐6 cases occurred in infants with median age of 61 days without seasonality. Five percent of infants less than 6 months of age undergoing testing for EV or HSV have HPeV or HHV‐6 in the CSF. Targeting testing of HPeV towards febrile infants less than 2 months of age with leukopenia in the late summer to early fall, and HHV‐6 towards older infants may increase diagnostic yield. The clinical and fiscal impact of testing infants for HPeV and HHV‐6 needs to be determined. J. Med. Virol. 87:829–835, 2015 . © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.