Five-year Study of Viral Etiology and Features of Febrile Respiratory Tract Infections With Prolonged Fever in Japanese Pediatric Outpatients

: Over 5 years, we prospectively collected nasopharyngeal aspirate samples from pediatric outpatients with prolonged fever (≥5 days, ≥38.0°C). Real-time polymerase chain reaction assays identifying 13 different respiratory viruses and Mycoplasma pneumoniae were performed on the test samples. Real-time polymerase chain reaction assays identified at least 1 pathogen in 273 (75.4%) of the 362 samples assessed (239 single and 34 multiple infections).