ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Virus and Host
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1616548
Clinical characterization of human metapneumovirus infection in 525 patients with respiratory tract infections in Jilin Province
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Respiratory Medicine, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China
- 2Key Laboratory of Digital Technology in Medical Diagnostics of Zhejiang Provinces, Hangzhou, China
- 3First Affiliated Hospital of Jinzhou Medical University, Jinzhou, Liaoning Province, China
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Background: Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is a common cause of acute respiratory infections. The aim of this study was to analyze the demographic characteristics and treatment outcomes of HMPV virus infection in Jilin province.Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of patients with respiratory tract infections between September 2023 and February 2024 in the Lequn Campus of the First Hospital of Jilin University, using tNGS sequencing. This study focused on HMPV-infected patients and included infections with this virus alone as well as co-infections.Results: In the present study, 525 patients with respiratory diseases were analysed, 65 (12.57%) of whom were found to be infected with HMPV. The period of maximum human metapneumovirus infection was observed to be January, and of the 65 patients infected with this virus, 10 (15.2%) were infected with HMPV alone and 56 (84.8%) were co-infected with HMPV. The most prevalent co-infection was bacterial, with the most common identified pathogen being human herpesvirus, followed by Candida albicans and Streptococcus pneumoniae. The percentage of co-infections in patients not infected with HMPV was 78.87%. Patients infected with HMPV alone exhibited a lower proportion of males, elevated rates of fever and cough, and a higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus and CURB-65 score (P>0.05). In addition, these patients demonstrated higher C-reactive protein (P<0.01), lymphocyte ratio (P<0.01), and CURB-65 score (P>0.05). The most prevalent initial diagnoses were pneumonia, with additional respiratory failure and hypoproteinemia diagnoses.Furthermore, a higher proportion of patients infected with the HMPV virus were hospitalized for more than 10 days compared with those not infected with the virus. Conclusion: HMPV is easily neglected in the current diagnosis and treatment process, but the risk it poses, such as long hospitalisation, should not be ignored. tNGS showed excellent detection performance and great potential in this study, and it can be a good tool to help clinicians in diagnosis and treatment.
Keywords: human metapneumovirus, Epidemiology, Targeted next generation sequencing, TNGS, Lower respiratory tract infection, viral infection
Received: 23 Apr 2025; Accepted: 24 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Liu, Bian, Wang, He, Hu, Zhang and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Lei Zhang, Key Laboratory of Digital Technology in Medical Diagnostics of Zhejiang Provinces, Hangzhou, China
Chao-ying Liu, Department of Respiratory Medicine, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China
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