%0 Journal Article %T Prevalence of human cosaviruses in Tunisia, North Africa. %+ Laboratoire de Virologie Clinique, Référence Régional OMS pour la Poliomyélite et la Rougeole - Laboratory of Clinical Virology, WHO Regional Reference Laboratory on Poliomyelitis and Measles %+ National Program of Immunization Basic Health Care Division %A Rezig, Dorra %A Farhat, Essia Ben %A Touzi, Henda %A Meddeb, Zina %A Salah, Afif Ben %A Triki, Henda %Z Grant sponsor: Tunisian Ministry for High Education and Scientific Reasearch; Grant number: LR11-IPT09. %< avec comité de lecture %@ 0146-6615 %J Journal of Medical Virology %I Wiley-Blackwell %V 87 %N 6 %P 940-3 %8 2015-06 %D 2015 %R 10.1002/jmv.24076 %M 25649285 %K acute flaccid paralysis %K cosavirus %K picornaviridae %K prevalence %Z Life Sciences [q-bio] %Z Life Sciences [q-bio]/Microbiology and Parasitology/VirologyJournal articles %X A new picornavirus, named human Cosavirus (HCoSV) was isolated recently from stools of children with acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) and healthy children in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Since then, it was also isolated from patients from other countries. Five species are presently identified forming a new genus in the Picornaviridae family. This study reports the detection of HCoSV in stool specimens collected as part of the National Poliovirus surveillance Program in Tunisia, between 2011 and 2012, from patients with AFP and healthy individuals among their contacts. One hundred and ninety four stool samples were investigated by RT-PCR in the 5' non-coding region of the genome. A total of 64 specimens (33%) tested positive for HCoSV. HCoSV positive specimens were found in 36 cases with neurological syndromes and 28 of their healthy contacts. The highest rate of HCoSV infection (62.5%) occurred in children younger than 6 years of age. The sampling date of stool specimens suggested that HCoSV infection occurred regularly over time. Also, the sampling origin of stool specimen showed that HCoSV infection was detected in almost all the governorates of Tunisia from the North to the South of the country. This study is the first report of HCoSV prevalence in the North African region. It contributes to a better knowledge on the geographic distribution and the epidemiology of these viruses. %G English %L pasteur-01375010 %U https://riip.hal.science/pasteur-01375010 %~ RIIP %~ RIIP_TUNIS