New Saffold Cardiovirus in Children, China

摘要

To the Editor: A new member of the genus Cardiovirus, termed Saffold virus (SAFV), was discovered recent-ly in stool specimens and nasopharyn-geal aspirate samples from patients with fever of unknown origin, respi-ratory symptoms, or gastroenteritis; these have been considered the first documented reports of cardiovirus infection in humans (1–4). However, the epidemiologic characteristics and pathogenic role of the virus are not fully understood.From July 2006 through June 2008, stool specimens were collected from 631 hospitalized children with diarrhea and 161 asymptomatic con-trols in Lanzhou, People's Republic of China. All children were 3 loose stools in the previous 24–72 h. Controls were asymptomatic children who had been brought to the First Hospital of Lanzhou University Pedi-atric Primary Care Center for a routine checkup and had not had fever, diar-rhea, vomiting, or a respiratory illness in the previous 3 weeks. The stool specimens were then transported to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, to undergo screening for common enteric viruses. The specimens were tested for rotavi-rus by using a commercially available ELISA kit (IDEIA Rotavirus; DAKO, Glostrup, Denmark), and PCR and re-verse transcription PCR (5) were used to screen for other common enteric vi-ruses, including norovirus, sapovirus, astrovirus, and adenovirus