WU Polyomavirus Infection in Children, Germany

Abstract

To the Editor: The human polyomaviruses JC and BK are known to cause persisting infections, which are usually asymptomatic in immunocompetent patients but may lead to severe disease in those who are immunosuppressed (1). Recently, 2 novel viruses of the family Polyomaviridae were detected in respiratory samples and named KI (2) and WU polyomavirus (WUPyV) (3). To investigate the frequency of WUPyV infections in Germany, we examined nasopharyngeal samples from hospitalized children with acute respiratory diseases for WUPyV DNA.