The burden of infections by parainfluenza virus in hospitalized children in Spain.

We designed a prospective study to describe the clinical impact of the parainfluenza viruse (PIV) types detected in hospitalized children with respiratory tract infections from September 2008 to August 2010 in Spain. PIV infections were a significant proportion of viral respiratory detections (11.8% of cases). PIV types 3 and 4 were most commonly detected. There were clinical differences between PIV and respiratory syncytial virus infections.