Acute Respiratory Infection in Co-Infection Form of Bacteria and Virus, Human Bocavirus with Streptococcus pneumoniae: A Case Report

Human bocavirus (HBoV) belongs to the Parvoviridae family, which has been revealed to be associated with respiratory and gastrointestinal infections in children. There are many reports worldwide on respiratory infection or gastroenteritis caused by this virus.

In a twin case (a girl and a boy), we demonstrated that HBoV infection in combination with Streptococcus pneumonia as co-infection caused the death of a 14-month-old girl with a history of high fever and wheezing. A week later, her brother presented with almost the same symptoms, but only HBoV was found in a nasopharyngeal aspirate sample.

This case suggests that lower respiratory tract infections due to HBoV may cause severe and life-threatening diseases, resulting in death in combination with a bacterial infection, such as S. pneumonia. The study suggests replacing multiplex PCR as a fast and meticulous method instead of conventional and time-consuming microbiological methods for determining the causative organism for respiratory infections.