Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Human metapneumovirus has been recognized as a common cause of respiratory infections particularly in infants and young children. The aim of the study is to determine the frequency of hMPV infections among children less than 2 years of age and to define its clinical features and seasonal pattern over a single respiratory season. Direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) assay was compared to RT-PCR for the detection of hMPV in respiratory samples. Fifty pediatric patients presenting with acute respiratory tract infection were enrolled in the study. Nasopharyngeal aspirate specimens were subjected to DFA assay and real-time PCR for the presence of hMPV. It was found that hMPV accounted for 4 cases (8%) of the studied patients and the infection rate was higher (20%) among the 12{u2013}24 months age group. Moreover, hMPV-positive cases were mostly detected in winter months. Their main clinical features were respiratory distress (100%) and cough (100%), with pneumonia (75%) and bronchiolitis (25%) being the main clinical diagnoses among the studied patients. By considering the real-time PCR assay as the gold standard test for diagnosing hMPV, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and test efficiency of DFA for the detection of hMPV were 50%, 100%, 100%, 95.8% and 96%, respectively. Direct fluorescent antibody assay for hMPV was a highly specific and simple test but of low sensitivity

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