Acute Respiratory Infections Epidemiology and Etiology in Hospitalized Moroccan Children under 15 Years

Introduction: Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are serious infections with multiple etiologies. Viral etiology is mostly common worldwide, especially in pediatric patients.Materials and methods: This study aims to describe epidemiology and etiology of ARIs in Moroccan children under 15 years old, through patients’ clinical features analysis and genetic detection of pathogens within 84 patients admitted to Hassan II regional hospital of Agadir, Morocco, from September 2015 to September 2016. Detection of pathogens was carried out using Multiplex real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) with Fast Track Diagnostic kit respiratory pathogens 21 plus.Results: Results gave 61.9% of positive viral and bacterial infections and 19.23% of co-infections by at least two pathogens. Males were mainly infected and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was the most common in 53.8% of patients. Children aged less than 2 years were the most infected by ARIs pathogens, and especially by RSV virus. Concerning seasonality pattern, all ARIs pathogens showed a seasonal spreading mainly in winter.Conclusion: This study summarizes a great insight about epidemiology and etiology of ARIs among children under 15 years in Morocco. We observed that ARIs constituted a real health problem in infancy and the viruses are the commonest cause.