Molecular and epidemiological trends of human bocavirus and adenovirus in children with acute gastroenteritis in Bangladesh during 2015-2019.

Virus associated diarrhea remains one of the leading causes of children morbidity and mortality in Bangladesh. Human bocavirus (HBoV) has been reported as a potential pathogen of children diarrhea worldwide. However, due to its frequent association with other gastroenteric pathogens its role as diarrhea causative agent remains to be defined. This study focuses to detect the incidence of HBoV and adenovirus (AdV) and to determine molecular and epidemiological characteristics of HBoV and AdV. Between January 2015 to January 2019, 290 fecal specimens were collected from diarrheal children in Bangladesh. All fecal specimens were tested for HBoV and AdV by conventional polymerase chain reaction and sequencing methods. HBoV was detected in 7.24% (21 of 290) of the stool samples, as a sole virus in 71.42% (15 of 21) of the positive samples. Adenovirus was detected in 4.82% (14 of 290) of the samples. The most common clinical symptoms of HBoV infected patients were diarrhea (100%) and vomiting (57%). All of the isolates of HBoV were from HBoV1 and AdV were from AdV41, AdV5, AdV7 & AdV8. To the best of our knowledge this is the first epidemiological and molecular analysis report of HBoV from clinical specimens in Bangladesh. In future more studies are needed to clarify the role of HBoV as diarrheal pathogens. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.