Abstract: Objective To determine the spectrum of enteroviruses (EV) in children with acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI) in Beijing. Method Throat swabs were collected from 1,121 children at the time of admission to the Beijing Children’s Hospital for ARTI during May 2009 through September 2009. To detect EV, the viral protein 1 (VP1) gene were amplified by reverse transcription PCR and verified the findings by sequence analysis. Results EV was detected in 55 children and 14 EV serotypes were identified. Among of them, 7 EV serotypes including 44 cases belonged to EV-A and the others belonged to EV-B. The sequences of EV in this research had very high homology with that detected in hand-foot-and-mouth disease or aseptic meningitis. Compared to prototype, mutations were happened in clinical strains. Conclusions EV-A was dominant in children with acute respiratory tract infections which was different to that of the adult in Beijing in 2009.

Key words: enteroviruses, respiratory tract infections, spectrum of infection