Abstract
Although human metapneumovirus (hMPV), which was first described in 2001, may be isolated in upper and lower airway infections of children less than 10 years of age, there are to our knowledge, not a lot of studies about this virus in our country. Real time – polimerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method is the gold standart diagnostic test for hMPV. Rapid and effective use of advanced diagnostic methods; such as PCR in the differential diagnosis of viral/bacterial pneumonia in patients admitted with the clinical and laboratory findings of pneumonia would help reduce the inappropriate use of antibiotics and thus start appropriate antiviral treatment in selected cases. In this article, a 18-month-old patient admitted with the findings of respiratory distress and oxygen requirement and in whom hMPV was detected as infectious agent is presented, and it is emphasized that hMPV, as a rarely isolated and relatively recently described virus in comprasion to classical airway viruses, may be the etiologic agent in respiratory infections of children less than 2 years of age.
Keywords: Children, human metapneumovirus, lower respiratory tract infections, pneumonia, real-time PCR.
