Detection of human bocavirus dna by multiplex pcr analysis: Postmortem case report

Abstract

Background: Human bocavirus (HBoV) is a virusbelonging to the Parvoviridae family, which has beennewly discovered to be associated with respiratory tractinfections in children. There are many reports world- wide on the endemicity of this virus. Since it is rela- tively new, it is not routinely detected in clinical labo- ratory investigations. Case Report: We demonstrated that HBoV infectioncaused the death of a 5-month-old girl with a historyof high fever and wheezing. Human bocavirus (HBoV1/2/3/4) was found in a nasopharyngeal swab, paraf- fin-embedded lung tissue and stool samples by multi- plex PCR methods using postmortem microbiologicalanalysis.Conclusion: This case suggests that lower respiratorytract infections due to HBoV may cause severe andlife-threatening diseases. Postmortem microbiologyis useful in both clinical and forensic autopsies, andallows a suspected infection to be confirmed. To ourknowledge, this report is the first document of a HBoVpostmortem case in Turkey.