Human metapneumovirus in Singapore : epidemiology, fusion-attachment protein interaction and virus-like particle assembly

• Main Author: Loo, Liat Hui
• Other Authors: Richard J. Sugrue
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/53649
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Human metapneumovirus was discovered in 2001. At the same time, it was also revealed that this virus had been circulating in the human population for at least 50 years. In the years that followed, an increasing number of research groups began to publish work on various aspects of HMPV. One of the main concerns was that this virus was detected in a significant proportion of children below the age of 3 years and caused respiratory symptoms very similar to its nearest related human pathogen: human respiratory syncytial virus. Before this study, there had been no large scale study on the prevalence of HMPV in Singapore. There was also no existing data on the presence of HBoV, HCoV and HRV in hospitalized children in Singapore. We screened five hundred clincial nasopharyngeal samples and found that these four respiratory viruses are present in significant proportions. This discovery will hopefully lead to more research interest in the area of respiratory pathogens in children.