High prevalence of human bocavirus 2 and its role in childhood acute gastroenteritis in China.

BACKGROUND

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) is one of the leading causes of death in children worldwide. Human bocavirus 2 (HBoV2) was recently identified in stool samples and is involved in the pathogenesis of AGE, but the current data were too limited to clarify this issue.

OBJECTIVE

We conducted a case-control study on 632 children with diarrhea and 162 healthy controls in Lanzhou, China, to assess the role of HBoV2 in gastroenteritis.

STUDY DESIGN

Viruses known or suspected to be agents of AGE, including RV, HucV, AdV, AstV, and HBoVs, were detected. Viral loads of HBoV2 were quantified by Real-time PCR.

RESULTS

HBoV2 was detected in 129 (20.4%) and 20 (12.3%) of the gastroenteritis and control samples, respectively. The association between HBoV2 and gastroenteritis was weaker (OR = 1.269, CI= 0.704-2.288) than that between gastroenteritis and RV, HucV, AdV, or AstV, as determined by multivariate logistic regression analysis. The data also suggested that infection with HBoV2 did not exacerbate the clinical symptoms of gastroenteritis. Mean HBoV2 viral load in the case and control groups was fewer than 55 copies/ml extract.

CONCLUSIONS

HBoV2 exhibit different epidemiological features from HBoV1 and HBoV3. The data presented herein do not support a causative role for HBoV2 in AGE, despite its high prevalence in stool samples.