Enterovirus infections in Cheonan, Korea, peak in June and predominantly affect infants under 1 year, with combined CSF and stool testing enhancing diagnostic yield.
BACKGROUND: This study was performed to investigate the epidemiology of enterovirus (EV) infections in children at a single hospital during recent 5 years. This study was preformed from December 2008 to November 2013. METHODS: We subjected 1,067 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens from 1,053 patients and 678 stool specimens from 665 patients using real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction tests that could detect EV. The data were analyzed according to seasonality and patient age and sex. RESULTS: During this period, 176 of the total 1,053 patients (16.81%) were positive for EV in CSF. The highest rate of EV-positive samples occurred in children less than 1 year of age (114/176, 64.77%), and the most prevalent month was June. The results for CSF and stool specimens were concordant in 545 (80.38%) of 678 cases. CONCLUSION: We described the epidemiological analytic data of the EV in the population of Cheonan, South Korea. The combination of the CSF and stool specimen enhances the diagnostic yield. There is a need for continuous study of EV infections and its clinical manifestations.
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Jeon et al. (2014) studied this question.
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