Abstract:
Worldwide, acute lower respiratory tract infections in young children are one of the leading causes of childhood mortality. The need to investigate respiratory viruses associated with acute lower respiratory tract infections, more especially all four types of human parainfluenza viruses in Ghana has become crucial due to the limited information available on these viruses. Thus the aim of this study was to detect and characterize human parainfluenza viruses in children that present with acute lower respiratory tract infections at Princess Marie Louise Children’s Hospital in Accra, Ghana. From March to July 2013, nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from 71 children and the presence of human parainfluenza viruses was investigated. Ribonucleic acid extracts of the nasopharyngeal swabs were subjected to one-step real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Positive samples were further analysed molecularly. Also, the demographics of participants, risk factors for human parainfluenza viruses infection as well as clinical presentations were also evaluated. A 19.7% positive test rate was recorded for the human parainfluenza viruses. All four types of the virus were detected but with different frequencies (five were type 1, one was type 2, six were type 3 and two were type 4). No multiple serotype infection of human parainfluenza viruses was detected in the positive cases. Positivity was highest (57.1%) in children who were less than one year old. Males and females were equally infected. Phylogenetic analysis of the human parainfluenza viruses sequenced revealed that the strains within each type were closely related and clustered with reference strains. Age and having siblings with respiratory tract infections were risk factors significantly associated with the human parainfluenza viruses’ infection. In conclusion, all four types of human parainfluenza viruses are in circulation in Ghana and were associated with acute lower respiratory tract infections.
