Infección Respiratoria Aguda por metapneumovirus humano en Ushuaia, Argentina: descripción del primer caso

at the end of the year 2003, a striking number of cases of severe respiratory illness in inpatient children with negative virologic studies were observed in ushuaia. due to reports of circulation of a new respiratory virus, human metapneumovirus, we decided to investigate its presence in three inpatient children with acute respiratory infection at the ushuaia regional hospital. nasopharyngeal aspirates, previously negative for the most common respiratory viruses by immunofluorescence assays, were studied by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction amplification of the human metapneumovirus genome. one of the samples was human metapneumovirus-positive. in none of the patients, antibodies class igm for chlamydia spp and mycoplasma pneumoniae were detected by immunofluorescence assays. the description of this case emphasizes the need of considering a broader spectrum of diagnostic assays in inpatients children with respiratory illnesses testing negative for the most common respiratory viruses.