Respiratory infections in children play a major role in doctor and hospital consultations. Mostly they are due to viral infections with respiratory pathogens such as RSV, Adenovirus and Influenza-Virus. In the last few years newly discovered viruses have come to be know as causative agents for acute respiratory infections. Amongst them are the Human Parechoviruses (hPeV) which belong to the family of Picornaviridae. In order to find out more about the prevalence, genotypes, and epidemiology and symptoms of hPeV-infections in Germany we developed a Real Time-PCR to detect hPeV-RNA in sample materials. We tested 800 NRS from the University Children's Hospital in Wuerzburg, Germany which were collected between January 2002 and September 2005. In 16 samples hPeV-RNA was detected (prevalence 2%). Of these samples 11 samples could be identified as hPeV 1, as well as 1 sample each of hPeV 3, hPeV 4 and hPeV 6. Two samples could not be typed. All children with the infection were younger than 5 years, 56% were female. The isolates were mostly detected between November and March (n=14), but also in April and June. Co-infection rate was high (56%), we detected simultaneous infections with RSV, Adenovirus, Parainfluenza-Virus, Influenza-Virus hBoV and WUPyV. The diagnose at discharge was twice 'upper respiratory infection' and 14 times 'lower respiratory infections'. In conclusion we propose that hPeV plays only a minor role in respiratory infections in children. In the greater area of Wuerzburg we mainly found the genotype hPeV 1. Concerning the age group of children younger than 2 years infections with hPEV occur commonly but do not have to lead to respiratory symptoms or hospital admission.