Prevalence of Human Rhinovirus Infection in Children with Acute Respiratory Symptoms in Ilorin, Nigeria

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Human rhinoviruses are positive-strand RNA, non-enveloped virus detected mostly in the early phase of infection showing symptoms in children experiencing mild upper respiratory tract infections.

METHOD

In this study, 200 patients were screened for rhinovirus infection using Human Rhinovirus antigen (RhV-Ag) Elisa Kit (MBS269914).

RESULTS

Demographic characteristics revealed that the prevalence of rhinovirus infection in children showed 38% positivity of which 20 (10.0%) were males while 17 (8.5%) were females. Children between the ages of 0-24 months have the highest prevalence of 45.9% while those older than 96 months have the least prevalence of 5.4%. No significant difference was observed between the genders and rhinovirus infection (p = 0.622). A total of 54.0%, 2.7%, 29.7% and 13.5% of the children attend daycare, creche, nursery and primary school respectively. A total of 140 (70%) in the urban recorded a positivity value of 11.0% and 59.0% negativity as against 60 (30%) who lived in the rural area with a value of 7.5%positivity and 22.5% negativity. Forty (20.0%) of the tested subjects had genotype AA out of which 6 (3.0%) was positive for rhinovirus infection, the remaining 34 (17.0%) were negative for the rhinovirus infection.

CONCLUSION

This study established the detection of rhinovirus infection in children attending the pediatrics clinic in Ilorin. This may become useful for diagnosing respiratory illness in high-risk populations with immune compromised individuals.