Objectives To explore the effects of HCoVs (including HCoV-OC43, HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63 and HCoV-HKU1) in acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRTI) in children and to investigate the clinical features of paediatric ALRTI caused by HCoVs.

Methods Total 3503 cases with ALRTI from March 2007 to March 2010 in Beijing Children’s Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University were enrolled into this study. One nasopharyngeal aspirate specimen was collected from each patient. PCR (or RT-PCR) were used to detect respiratory viruses including respiratory syncytial virus, human rhinovirus, influenza virus type A, B and C, parainfluenza virus type 1–4, adenovirus, enterovirus, human coronavirus, human metapneumovirus and human bocavirus. Clinical manifestation and laboratory findings of patients with HCoVs were analysed by using SPSS 19.0 for Windows (SPSS Inc., USA).

Results The overall positive rate of HCoVs infection was 3.77%. Most cases with HCoVs infection were under 3 years old. The ratio between male and female were 2.3:1, and the rate of co-infection with other respiratory virus in patient infected HCoVs was 65.2%. The positive rate of HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-229E were higher than that of HCoV-NL63 and HCoV-HKU1. There were no significant differences of clinical manifestation, laboratory findings and severity between ALRTIs caused by HCoVs and RSV.

Conclusions The overall infection rate of HCoVs in ALRTI in children was low. The clinical manifestations, laboratory findings and severity of ALRTI caused by HCoVs were comparable to that of ALRTI with RSV infection in children.