Human Bocavirus in Hospitalized Children, South Africa

To the Editor: In recent years, several novel respiratory viruses have been identified. These include human metapneumovirus (HMPV) (1), severe acute respiratory syndromeassociated coronavirus (2), human coronavirus (HCoV) NL63 (3,4), HCoV HKU1 (5), and, most recently, human bocavirus (HBoV) (6). The latter belongs to the Parvoviridae family and is most closely related to bovine parvovirus and canine minute virus (CnMV), which are members of the genus Bocavirus (6). Parvovirus B19 and HBoV are the only 2 parvoviruses known to be pathogenic to humans, but the relevance of HBoV infection in the clinical setting is not known.