frequency of coronavirus nl63 infection in children with upper respiratory infection by real-time pcr

Background: human coronavirus nl63 (hcov-nl63) is a new respiratory virus associated with acute respiratory infection in children. infection with this virus is usually accompanied by upper and lower infections of the respiratory tract in adults. objectives: in a retrospective study, we investigated the incidence of coronavirus infection in children under the age of five years. methods:we collected 138 specimens (nasalandthroat swabs) from children less than five-years-old with acute respiratory infection from october 2018 to december 2019. then, hcov-nl63 was investigated using real-time pcr. results: out of 138 samples, 33 (23.9%) were positive for coronavirus nl63, including 21 (63.6%) male samples and 12 (36.4%) female samples. there was no significant correlation between gender and positivity for coronavirus infection (p > 0.05). however, the association of clinical symptoms with the virus was statistically significant (p < 0.05). conclusions: this study was conducted for the first time in kerman province. in this study, the frequency of coronavirus nl63 was evaluated among children with acute respiratory infection with a highly sensitive method, real-time pcr. the prevalence of this virus was 33%, which was more frequent than in similar studies.