The Viral Causes Of Recurrent And Prolonged Respiratory Illnesses In Infancy

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 29 Jul 2008 - 1:00 PST

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Tuomas Jartti (University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA) and his team examined detailed viral aetiologies of recurrent moderate-to-severe respiratory illnesses in 27 infants from families with allergies or asthma.

The demographic and clinical data of these recurrently ill infants were compared with 258 children with fewer illnesses.

This is the first long-term prospective study using virus strain specific diagnostics for rhinoviruses, and it reveals several interesting findings.

First, frequently ill infants had higher exposure to other children and more wheezing illnesses than less symptomatic children. In addition, rhinoviruses were the most common virus detected, and could be associated with wheezing illnesses, as well as milder common colds.

Mixed viral infections were fairly common in these frequently ill infants, and were associated with more severe symptoms. Finally, detection of the same virus strain for more than two weeks was unusual (only 5% of all 244 positive findings) and most prolonged illnesses were caused by consecutive infections with different viruses.

In conclusion, this study demonstrates that rhinovirus infections occur early, pervasively, and repetitively in these high-risk infants and that prolonged illnesses in this age group are usually caused by a series of infections, rather than extending infection with a single virus.

Title of Original Article
Serial viral infections in infants with recurrent respiratory illnesses European Respiratory Journal (Erj), Vol. 32, No 2

The European Respiratory Journal is the peer-reviewed scientific publication of the European Respiratory Society (more than 8,000 specialists in lung diseases and respiratory medicine in Europe, the United States and Australia).

European Respiratory Journal