Prevalence of Torque Teno Virus in Portuguese Children Younger Than 3 Years Old: A Single-Center Study

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Torque Teno virus (TTV) infection in Portuguese children younger than 3 years old and to compare its detection in blood <i>versus</i> saliva. Samples, 242 saliva and 20 plasma, were collected from neonates and children. A real-time polymerase chain reaction was applied to detect the TTV load. Eighteen paired samples of saliva and plasma were concordant for viral DNA, and a correlation between both was statistically significant. The prevalence of TTV was 75.5% in children and 3.6% in neonates, but it was not possible to determine the origin of positive cases in neonates, if they were true cases acquired before or after birth. Overall, the results suggest that TTV transmission occurs mainly in early childhood. Despite the small sample size, the good saliva/plasma correlation obtained is promising, but larger studies are needed to validate saliva samples for epidemiological studies for TV.