Why the study?
Despite the high frequency of human rhinovirus infections, data describing its long-term epidemiological patterns in a single population remain limited.
Sustained HRV presence in the community is driven by frequent invasions of new types and variants rather than prolonged circulation of established strains.
Frequent new HRV type invasions sustain circulation in coastal Kenya; leaves open generalizability and implications for surveillance or interventions elsewhere.
Background Human rhinovirus (HRV) is an ubiquitous pathogen and the principal etiologic agent of common cold. Despite the high frequency of HRV infections, data describing its long-term epidemiological patterns in a single population remain limited. Methods We analysed 1,070 VP4/VP2 genomic region sequences obtained from samples collected between 2007-2018 from hospitalised paediatric patients (< 60 months) with acute respiratory disease in Kilifi County Hospital on the Kenya Coast. Results Of 7,231 children enrolled, HRV was detected in 1,497 (20.7%) andVP4/VP2 sequences were recovered from 1,070 samples (71.5%). A total of 144 different HRV types were identified (67 HRV-A, 18 HRV-B and 59 HRV-C) and at any time-point, several types co-circulated with alternating predominance. Within types multiple genetically divergent variants were observed. Ongoing HRV infections appeared to be a combination of (i) persistent types (observed up to seven consecutive months), (ii) reintroduced genetically distinct variants and (iii) new invasions (average of 8 new types, annually). Conclusion Sustained HRV presence in the Kilifi community is mainly due to frequent invasion by new types and variants rather than prolonged circulation of locally established strains.
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Morobe et al. (2021) studied this question.
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