title: Human metapneumovirus infection among family members.
abstract: The transmission of human metapneumovirus (hMPV) among family members is not well understood. We identified 15 families in which multiple members were diagnosed with hMPV infection by real-time PCR in 2008 and 2010. Index patients ranged in age from 2 years to 11 years (median 5 years), and all 15 index cases were children who attended primary school, kindergarten, or nursery school. Contact patients ranged in age from 2 months to 46 years (median 6 years). Excluding five adult cases, contact patients were significantly younger than index patients (P = 0·0389). Of the 12 contact children, seven (58%) were infants who were taken care of at home. The serial interval between the onset of symptoms in an index patient and the onset of symptoms in a contact patient was estimated to be 5 days. These results suggest that the control of school-based outbreaks is important for preventing hMPV infection in infants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Yamagata University Faculty of Medicine, Iida-nishi 2-2-2, Yamagata, Japan. matuzaki@med.id.yamagata-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsuzaki
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Itagaki
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Abiko
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mizuta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D029121:Metapneumovirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008875:Middle Aged; D018184:Paramyxoviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction