Detection of human coronaviruses in children with acute gastroenteritis

Human coronaviruses (HCoVs) are known respiratory pathogens. Moreover, coronavirus-like particles have been seen by electron microscope in stools, and SARS-HCoV has been isolated from intestinal tissue and detected in stool samples.

To find out if HCoVs can be found in stools of children with acute gastroenteritis and to assess the significance of HCoVs in the etiology of acute gastroenteritis in children.

878 stool specimens from children with acute gastroenteritis and 112 from control children were tested by RT-PCR to detect HCoV groups 1B, 2A and SARS. HCoVs were typed by sequencing all PCR positive samples.

Twenty-two (2.5%) of the 878 stool specimens of children with acute gastroenteritis were positive for HCoVs. The following HCoV types were detected: OC43 (10 cases, 45.5%), HKU1 (6 cases, 27.3%), 229E (2 cases, 9.1%) and NL63 (4 cases, 18.2%). In 4 of the cases a HCoV was the only detected virus; in the remaining cases rotavirus or norovirus was found in the same sample. In control groups there were two HCoV positive samples of 112 tested.

This study shows that all known non-SARS HCoVs can be found in stools of children with acute gastroenteritis. On the basis of this study, the significance of coronaviruses as gastrointestinal pathogens in children appears minor, since most of the coronavirus findings were co-infections with known gastroenteritis viruses.