First detection of human Metapneumovirus, acute respiratory infection agent, in a child hospitalized of Córdoba, Argentina, during 2011

Human Metapneumovirus was discovered by Van den Hoogen et al. (2001) in The Netherlands. It is a single-stranded, negative polarity RNA virus, belonging to the Paramyxoviridae family, subfamily Pneumovirinae. While the epidemiology of FLU, RSV, PIV and ADV is well characterized in Cordoba, Argentina, nothing is known yet about hMPV. Thus, the purpose in our Laboratory was to investigate the circulation of hMPV among 0 to 5 years old children hospitalized for low ARI and in this paper report the first detection of hMPV. The result was the detection of the first clinical case of human metapneumovirus for DIF, admitted to a private hospital in early winter (13 of July of 2011). He was a man of a month old. In conclusion, although the infectious respiratory diseases are multicausal, can be caused by bacteria, mycoplasma in biological agents and other agents involved physical or psychological, from the focus of our virological investigation, where they face 8 respiratory viral agents, the positive result is attributed to hMPV as a causative agent of this infection circulating in Cordoba. We can therefore conclude that this is the first report of detection performed at the Laboratory of respiratory infections of the Institute of Virology “J.M.Vanella” (InViV) Faculty of Medicine, National University of Cordoba, which shows the circulation of this agent in the city of Cordoba, Argentina.