Molecular Characterization of Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus in the Philippines, 2012-2013.

Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is a major cause of acute lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children worldwide. We performed molecular analysis of HRSV among infants and children with clinical diagnosis of severe pneumonia in four study sites in the Philippines, including Biliran, Leyte, Palawan, and Metro Manila from June 2012 to July 2013. Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected and screened for HRSV using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Molecular evolution of enterovirus 68 detected in the Philippines.

Background: Detection of Enterovirus 68 (EV68) has recently been increased. However, underlying evolutionary mechanism of this increasing trend is not fully understood.

Methods: Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from 5,240 patients with acute respiratory infections in the Philippines from June 2009 to December 2011.

Genetic characterization of human respiratory syncytial virus detected in hospitalized children in the Philippines from 2008 to 2012.

Background: Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is the leading cause of acute lower respiratory tract infection in infants and young children. However, molecular characteristic of HRSV is still unknown in the Philippines.

Objective: To describe the molecular epidemiology of circulating HRSV detected in the Philippines.

Respiratory viruses from hospitalized children with severe pneumonia in the Philippines.

Background: Pneumonia remains a leading cause of child death in developing countries. The viruses in severe pneumonia remain poorly defined.

Methods: The study was conducted at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban City, Philippines from May 2008 to May 2009.

Detection of human rhinovirus C viral genome in blood among children with severe respiratory infections in the Philippines.

Human rhinovirus (HRV) C was recently identified as the third species of HRV using a molecular technique. Infections caused by previously identified HRVs (A and B) are thought to be limited to the respiratory tract; however, pathogenesis of HRVC is still largely unknown. A total of 816 nasopharyngeal swabs from hospitalized children with severe respiratory infections in the Philippines (May 2008-May 2009) were tested for HRV by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and 243 samples (29.

Enterovirus 68 among children with severe acute respiratory infection, the Philippines.

Enterovirus 68 (EV68) is a rare enterovirus associated with respiratory illness that, unlike other enteroviruses, has been identified only from respiratory specimens. We identified EV68 from respiratory specimens of children hospitalized with a diagnosis of severe pneumonia in Leyte, Republic of the Philippines. Twenty-one samples showed high similarity with EV68 by sequencing of 5' nontranslated region; 17 of these samples were confirmed as EV68 by sequencing of viral protein 1 capsid coding region.