2193. Epidemiology and clinical characteristics of Human adenovirus in Korean children over the past 12 years (2008-2019)


 
 
 Human adenovirus (HAdV) is a common cause of respiratory tract infection (RTI) and clinical presentation varies by serotype. Serotypes 7 and 55 caused severe pneumonia in children during the early 2000s and in soldiers from 2014 to 2018, respectively, in South Korea. Recent data for the epidemiologic and clinical features of HAdV in Korean children are scarce.
 
 
 
 Nasal aspirates were collected from patients aged 18 years or younger with suspected RTIs at Seoul National University Children's Hospital from 2008 to 2019. HAdV serotype was determined by partial sequencing of hexon gene. The demographics and clinical features were reviewed through medical records.
 
 
 
 A total of 186 HAdVs were randomly selected for serotyping among 503 isolates obtained for 12 years. The median age was 2.1 years (range 1 month -17.9 years) with a slight male dominance (60.8%). Ten different serotypes were identified, which included 1-7, 31, 34, 35, and 55. The most predominant serotype was HAdV-3 (n=73, 39.3%) followed by HAdV-2 (n=42, 22.6%). Lower RTI was common in children infected with HAdV-3 (n=40, 54.8%) and HAdV-2 (n=18, 42.9%). HAdV-3 showed an epidemic every three years. HAdV-7 which previously caused severe pneumonia, has not been detected since 2008. HAdV-55 (n=9, 4.9%) was sporadically detected by each one case in 2008, 2009, and 2014, while six cases were detected in 2017-18. Among children with HAdV-55 detected, most (66.7%) had upper RTI as clinical diagnosis and only two (22.2%) had a clinically considerable pneumonia.
 
 
 
 Over the past 12 years, HAdV-3 and 2 were prevalent and played an important role in RTIs of Korean children. HAdV-55 infection in children was not clinically significant in comparison to the recent Korean military outbreak cases.
 
 
 
 All Authors: No reported disclosures.
