Table II.

Analysis of the Epidemiological Study in a Pediatric Patient Population During Three Consecutive Winters From November 2002 to March 2005

	Winter 2002–2003	Winter 2003–2004a	Winter 2004–2005
No. of nasal aspirates	1,040	263	1,112
No. of positive nasal aspirates	439	188	590
No. of hMPV detected (% of negative specimens/% of total nasal aspirates)	59 (10/5.6)	17 (22.6/6.4)	52 (8.8/4.7)
Primers used for the RT‐PCR	MPV.M1/MPV.M2	MPV.M1/MPV.M2	MPV.M1/MPV.M2
Repartition in the child population (%):
0–6 months	35.6	56.5	32.7
6–12 months	22	26.1	23.1
12–24 months	13.6	17.4	19.2
>24 months	28.8	—	25
Male	27	16	27
Female	32	7	25

^aThese data were obtained only in children less than 2 years old.