A trace-back analysis of SARS negative nasopharyngeal aspirates from patients with respiratory illness during the SARS period in 2003, identified the presence of CoV-HKU1 RNA in the sample from a 35-year-old woman with pneumonia. Following the initial reports of the discovery of HCoV-HKU1, the virus was identified that same year in 10 patients in northern Australia. Respiratory samples were collected between May and August (winter in Australia). Investigators found that most of the HCoV-HKU1–positive samples originated from children in the later winter months. The first known cases in the Western hemisphere were discovered in 2005 after analysing older specimens by clinical virologists at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut who were curious to discover if HCoV-HKU1 was in their area. They conducted a study of specimens collected in a 7-week period (December 2001 – February 2002) in 851 infants and children. Specimens of nine children had<unk> . These children had respiratory tract infections at the time the specimens were collected (in one girl so severe that mechanical ventilation was needed), while testing negative for other causes like Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), parainfluenza viruses (types 1–3), influenza A and B viruses, and adenovirus by direct immunofluorescence assay as well as human metapneumovirus and HCoV-NH by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The researchers reported that the strains identified in New Haven were similar to the strain found in Hong Kong and suggested a worldwide distribution. These strains found in New Haven is not to be confused with HCoV-NH (New Haven coronavirus), which is a strain of Human coronavirus NL63. In July 2005, six cases were reported in France. In these cases, French investigators utilized improved techniques for recovering the virus from nasopharyngeal aspirates and from stool samples.
Human coronavirus HKU1
Human coronavirus OC43
Human coronavirus NL63
Influenza D virus
Human coronavirus 229E
Chinese coronavirus
Hendra virus
SARS-CoV-2 Beta variant