Epidemiology and genetic characterization of human metapneumovirus in pediatric patients from Hangzhou China

Abstract Human metapneumovirus (HMPV), which is distributed worldwide, is a significant viral respiratory pathogen responsible for causing acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) in children. The aim of the present study was to investigate the epidemiological and genetic characteristics of HMPV in pediatric patients in Hangzhou China following the peak of onset of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). A total of 1442 throat swabs were collected from the pediatric patients with a diagnosis of ARTI from November 2020 to March 2021. The following viruses were detected by real‐time polymerase chain reaction analysis: HMPV, RSV, adenovirus, hPIV1‐3, influenza A, and influenza B. A two‐step method was used to amplify the F genes of the HMPV‐positive samples. Following sequencing, phylogenetic analyses were conducted using the MEGA version 7 software package. Among the 1442 samples, 103 (7.14%) were positive for HMPV. No significant differences were observed in the gender distribution. The highest incidence of HMPV occurred in children older than 6 years and the lowest was noted in children younger than 6 months. Lower respiratory tract infections were diagnosed at a higher rate than upper respiratory tract infections in HMPV‐infected children. Only 10 HMPV‐infected children (5.41%) were inpatients compared with 93 outpatients (7.39%). Co‐infection was observed in 31 HMPV‐positive samples including 24 samples of double infection and seven samples of triple infection. A total of 61F gene fragments of HMPV, which were approximately 727 bp in length were successfully sequenced. All the HMPVs belonged to the genotype B and were clustered into subgenotypes B1 (1.6%, 1/61) and B2 (98.4%, 60/61). A total of four specific amino acid substitutions were noted as follows: aa280, aa296, aa392, and aa396. These substitutions were present between sequences derived from the subgenotypes B1 and B2 in the fusion open reading frame from position 244 to 429. In conclusion, the present study provided significant information regarding the epidemiological and genetic characteristics of HMPV in children living in Hangzhou. Following the first peak of the COVID‐19 pandemic, HMPV was considered an important viral respiratory pathogen present in children with ARTI.