High prevalence of human bocavirus detected in young children with severe acute lower respiratory tract disease by use of a standard PCR protocol and a novel real-time PCR protocol

The human bocavirus (HBoV) was recently isolated from respiratory tract samples. Within a study collective of children with severe lower respiratory tract disease, the patients testing positive for HBoV (12.8%) had a higher rate of underlying cardiopulmonary disease. Viral loads in respiratory tract specimens varied from 10(2) to 10(10) genome equivalents/ml.