Non-pandemic human coronaviruses - characteristics and diagnostics

In this article, the characteristics of human coronaviruses (HCoV) are presented. Currently, six human coronaviruses are known: HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63, HCoV-HKU1, HCoV-SARS and HCoV-MERS. The first human coronaviruses were described in the sixties of the twentieth century, the last one, HCoV-MERS, in 2012 y. Coronaviruses can cause mild, asymptomatic infections as well as severe respiratory diseases, like pneumonia and bronchiolitis. The symptoms of HCoV infection are mainly: fever, nasopharyngitis, cough, bronchiolitis, pneumonia. Infections due to HCoV occur during the whole human life, but aremost frequent in children. They can occur throughout the year, but are most common in the winter season. Treatment of HCoV infections is usually symptomatic. Diagnosis of HCoV is mainly based on molecular technics such as quantitative PCR. Serological tests are only used for epidemiological purposes.