Prevalence of respiratory virus in a selected population of children with asthma exacerbation

Asthma affects around 300 million people around the world. Some patients present episodes in which symptoms are worsened, resulting in an exacerbation. Although its etiology is still unknown, some viral agents are possible triggers, but their role is still unclear. We determined the prevalence of 5 viruses in a population of children with exacerbations and a possible association between their presence and their age, the severity of the crisis, medication used, admission to ICU and hospitalization, as well as a possible relationship between these variables and HRV’s subtypes as well as RSV’s load. Nasopharyngeal aspirates of pediatric patients with a previous diagnosis of asthma, admitted to two health institutions, were analyzed to detect hAdV, HBoV, HRV, EV and RSV. PCR, RT-PCR and qPCR were performed for each case followed by subsequent sequencing. 175 patients were included in this study, in which HRV was the most frequently detected agent. Despite its high prevalence, we found no association between its detection or group type and the analyzed variables, as well as for the other viruses analyzed. Regarding RSV, the data suggested a significant relationship between RSV load and gender, being this, the first report to find this possible association. These results reinforce the importance of HRV in exacerbations in pediatric patients, especially regarding type C, but their presence apparently does not correlate with the severity or any demographic or clinical variable, as well as for the other viruses analyzed. On the other hand, we found a possible significant relationship between RSV load and gender but more studies are required to determine the relation between these variables.