Open AccessEpidemiological and clinical features of human coronavirus infections among different subsets of patients
Author(s) -
Cabeça Tatiane K.,
Granato Celso,
Bellei Nancy
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
influenza and other respiratory viruses
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.743
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1750-2659
pISSN - 1750-2640
DOI - 10.1111/irv.12101
Subject(s) - epidemiology , asymptomatic , odds ratio , coronavirus , confidence interval , medicine , respiratory tract infections , betacoronavirus , virology , covid-19 , immunology , respiratory system , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Background Epidemiological and clinical data of human coronaviruses ( HC o V s) infections are restricted to span 1–3 years at most. We conducted a comprehensive 9‐year study on HC o V s by analyzing 1137 respiratory samples from four subsets of patients (asymptomatic, general community, with comorbidities, and hospitalized) in São Paulo, B razil. Methods A pan‐coronavirus RT‐PCR screening assay was performed, followed by species‐specific real‐time RT‐PCR monoplex assays. Results Human coronaviruses were detected in 88 of 1137 (7.7%) of the samples. The most frequently detected HC o V species were NL 63 (50.0%) and OC 43 (27.3%). Patients with comorbidities presented the highest risk of acquiring coronavirus infection (odds ratio = 4.17; 95% confidence interval = 1.9–9.3), and children with heart diseases revealed a significant HC o V infection presence. Dyspnea was more associated with HC o V ‐229 E infections (66.6%), and cyanosis was reported only in HC o V ‐ OC 43 infections. There were interseasonal differences in the detection frequencies, with HC o V ‐229 E being predominant in the year 2004 (61.5%) and HC o V ‐ NL 63 (70.8%) in 2008. Conclusions Our data provide a novel insight into the epidemiology and clinical knowledge of HC o V s among different subsets of patients, revealing that these viruses may cause more than mild respiratory tract disease.