Influenza A virus among the hospitalized young children with acute respiratory infection. Is influenza A co infected with respiratory syncytial virus?

BACKGROUND Both influenza A virus (IAV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cause acute respiratory infection (ARI) in infants and young children. This study was conducted to determine Influenza A virus and its co infection with RSV among the hospitalized children with ARI. METHODS A total of 153 throat samples of the hospitalized young children aged between below one year and 5 years with the clinical signs of ARI were collected from the different hospitals in Khuzestan from June 2009 to April 2010. The samples were tested for Influenza A viruses by real time PCR. Positive IAV samples were tested for influenza A sub type H1N1 and for RSV by the nested PCR. RESULTS In this study, from the total 153 samples, 35 samples (22.9%) including 15 (42.8%) females and 20 (57.2%) males were positive for influenza A viruses. From the 35 positive samples for IAV, 14 were positive for swine H1N1 subtype. All the positive samples for influenza showed negative for RSV infection which revealed no coinfection with RSV. The prevalence of influenza A among age/sex groups was not significant. CONCLUSION Influenza A is a prevalent viral agent isolated from young children with ARI. Influenza A subtype H1N1 was accounted for the 40 percent all laboratory-proven diagnoses of influenza in 2009. No evidence of coinfection of influenza A and RSV has been observed in the present study.