Severe respiratory tract infections with human bocavirus in children

Abstract

Acute respiratory tract infection remains a major cause of childhood hospitalization and mortality in young children. Human bocavirus (HBoV) is a virus belonging to the Parvoviridae family, which has been newly discovered to be associated with respiratory tract infection in children. Human bocavirus infection is usually seen as form of co-infection. The frequent associations of HBoV with other respiratory viruses might be explained by the persistence of HBoV in the respiratory tract. HBoV primary events generally associated with mild respiratory illness. Here, we reported three patients who developed an extremely severe acute life-threatening respiratory failure due to HBoV infection.