Short communicationHigh diversity of human parechovirus including novel types in stool samples from Ghanaian children
Section snippets
Background
Human parechoviruses (HPeV) belong to the family Picornaviridae and circulate worldwide, but information on the prevalence and diversity of HPeV in sub-Saharan Africa is limited [1]. At least 17 HPeV genotypes have been described to date, most of them only recently (www.picornaviridae.com/parechovirus/hpev/hpev.htm). In general, infection caused by HPeV-1 and −2 remains asymptomatic or causes mild enteric or respiratory symptoms. For HPeV-3, however, severe clinical courses with sepsis-like
Objectives
We aimed to determine the rate and diversity of HPeV types in stool samples in a cohort of children in rural Ghana and to unravel a possible association with diarrhea and gastrointestinal co-infections.
Study design
Stool samples collected in the framework of a case-control study on causes of diarrhea in children were analysed. All study participants were recruited at the childreńs Outpatients Department (OPD) of the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital in the Ashanti region of Ghana between June 2007 and October 2008 [4]. Samples were collected from children <6 years. Children with diarrhea were defined as cases with at least three loose stools within the last 24 h. Children attending the OPD without diarrhea served
Results
Table 1 summarizes characteristics of study participants. Overall, 162 (24%) of 682 samples tested HPeV rRT-PCR positive [73/341 (21%) cases and 89/341 (26%) controls]. Amplification and sequencing of the VP1 region was successful in 114/162 (70%) of HPeV-positive samples [52 (46%) cases and 62 (54%) controls]. In the phylogenetic analysis the HPeV strains clustered with different reference strains (Fig. 1). The majority was HPeV-1 (30/114, 26%), followed by HPeV-4 (16/114, 14%), and HPeV-8
Discussion
Our study demonstrated a high rate of HPeV among Ghanaian children and a much higher HPeV diversity in Africa than previously known. The overall HPeV rate of 25% was almost five times higher than reported in a recent study from Côte d’Ivoire among apparently healthy individuals what can be explained by the different age distribution of individuals tested [1]. In contrast to the study from Côte d’Ivoire we only included children. HPeV-1 and −4 were the most frequently detected types what is in
Funding
This work was supported by the UBS Optimus Foundation and by the German Centre for Infection Research (Deutsches Zentrum für Infektionsforschung, DZIF).
Competing interests
All authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Ethical approval
Ethical approval for this study was provided by the Committee on Human Research Publication and Ethics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. Informed consent was obtained from parents or guardians of all children.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all the children who participated in this study and to the personnel at the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital. Without their efforts this research study would not have been possible. We are grateful to Björn Eberle for expert technical support.
References (14)
- et al.
Detection and characterization of enteroviruses and parechoviruses in healthy people living in the South of Cote d'Ivoire
J. Clin. Virol.
(2015) - et al.
Pediatric parechovirus infections
J. Clin. Virol.
(2014) - et al.
Molecular epidemiology, genome characterization, and recombination event of human parechovirus
Virology
(2011) - et al.
Similar virus spectra and seasonality in paediatric patients with acute respiratory disease, Ghana and Germany
Clin. Microbiol. Infect.
(2016) - et al.
An outbreak of severe infections among Australian infants caused by a novel recombinant strain of human parechovirus type 3
Sci. Rep.
(2017) - et al.
Gastrointestinal infections and diarrheal disease in Ghanaian infants and children: an outpatient case-control study
PLoS Negl. Trop. Dis.
(2015) - et al.
Prevalence, types, and RNA concentrations of human parechoviruses, including a sixth parechovirus type, in stool samples from patients with acute enteritis
J. Clin. Microbiol.
(2008)
Cited by (24)
Prevalence and genetic diversity of Parechovirus A in children with diarrhea in Beijing, China, 2017–2019
2023, Infection, Genetics and EvolutionMolecular characterization of the complete genome sequence of human Parechovirus 1 in Pakistan
2020, Virus ResearchCitation Excerpt :Human parechoviruses (HPeVs) are non-enveloped viruses belonging to the family Picornaviridae in the genus Parechovirus (Graul et al., 2017).
Complete genome sequences of the first parechoviruses A associated with sporadic pediatric acute gastroenteritis in Russia
2020, Infection, Genetics and EvolutionCitation Excerpt :The incidence of HPeV (1.2%) in this study was lower than that (6.2%) reported in a study conducted in European Russia in 2006–2010 (Golitsina et al., 2013), but comparable to the 1–2% incidence reported in Italy (Rovida et al., 2013), Thailand (Chaimongkol et al., 2012; Chuchaona et al., 2015) and South Korea (Han et al., 2011). The prevalence of HPeV infection in children hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis substantially varies from country to country, with a range from 1% to 55% (Benschop et al., 2008; Pham et al., 2010, 2011a,b, 2019; Han et al., 2011; Zhong et al., 2011; Chaimongkol et al., 2012; Alam et al., 2013, 2015; Rovida et al., 2013; Chen et al., 2014; Yip et al., 2014; Chuchaona et al., 2015; Mladenova et al., 2015; Graul et al., 2017; Malasao et al., 2019; Pietsch and Liebert, 2019). The relatively low prevalence of HPeV infection recorded in Asian Russia compared to previous studies can be explained by variations in the study season, population, cohort age, collection size, and other factors.
Human parechovirus type 5 neurological infection in a neonate with a favourable outcome: A case report
2019, International Journal of Infectious DiseasesCitation Excerpt :Parechovirus A (PeV-A) is an increasingly recognized cause of meningo-encephalitis in children, and PeV-A type 3 (PeV-A3) is thought to be particularly neurotropic, as it is frequently identified in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of infants with sepsis-like presentations (Wolthers et al., 2008; Harvala et al., 2010). In contrast, the large majority of PeV-A type 5 (PeV-A5) have been identified in stool samples of patients with gastrointestinal syndromes (Graul et al., 2017; Pajkrt et al., 2009; van der Sanden et al., 2008; Zhang et al., 2011; Zhong et al., 2011). Indeed, PeV-A5 has seldom been reported as a cause of meningo-encephalitis or sepsis-like syndromes (Cabrerizo et al., 2015).
Genetic diversity of human parechoviruses in stool samples, Germany
2019, Infection, Genetics and Evolution