Human Metapneumovirus Detection in Patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

摘要

We used a combination approach of conventional virusisolation and molecular techniques to detect human metap-neumovirus (HMPV) in patients with severe acute respira-tory syndrome (SARS). Of the 48 study patients, 25(52.1%) were infected with HMPV; 6 of these 25 patientswere also infected with coronavirus, and another 5 patients(10.4%) were infected with coronavirus alone. Using thiscombination approach, we found that human laryngeal car-cinoma (HEp-2) cells were superior to rhesus monkey kid-ney (LLC-MK2) cells commonly used in previous studies forisolation of HMPV. These widely available HEp-2 cellsshould be included in conjunction with a molecular methodfor cell culture followup to detect HMPV, particularly inpatients with SARS