Human Bocavirus in Kuwait. Human Bocavirus (HBoV) in Kuwait: Molecular Epidemiology and Clinical Outcome of the Virus among Patients with Respiratory Diseases

Human bocavirus (HBoV) was first discovered in 2005 in respiratory samples from patients with suspected acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI) using metagenomics approaches. HBoV-1 has been predominantly diagnosed in the respiratory tract. However, other related HBoV types, namely HBoV2, HBoV3, and HBoV4, were later discovered and have been found mainly in human stool samples. The epidemiology, genetic diversity, and clinical involvement of HBoV in respiratory disease are unknown in Kuwait. Thus, the present study aims to evaluate the prevalence and genetic diversity of HBoV in patients with respiratory diseases in Kuwait and to study the clinical outcome among these patients