Introduction Human rhinovirus is a major cause of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) worldwide. Epidemiological data on human rhinovirus (RV) in Peru is still scarce, as well as its role in respiratory infections in children. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of rhinovirus and to identify the circulating species in nasopharyngeal swabs from children with acute respiratory infections. Materials and methods We analyzed nasopharyngeal swab samples that were collected from children younger than 17 years old, who had a clinical diagnosis of ARI from the "Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia"between May 2009 and December 2010. The original study recruited 767 inpatients with ARI, 559 samples of which were included and analyzed in the current study. Detection of rhinovirus and determination of rhinovirus species were characterized by PCR. Results Rhinovirus was dete...