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Comparative Study
. 2008 Jul;42(3):268-72.
doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2008.03.012. Epub 2008 May 2.

Multiple simultaneous viral infections in infants with acute respiratory tract infections in Spain

Cristina Calvo  1 , Maria Luz García-García, Carolina Blanco, M Carmen Vázquez, M Elena Frías, Pilar Pérez-Breña, Inmaculada Casas
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Multiple simultaneous viral infections in infants with acute respiratory tract infections in Spain

Cristina Calvo et al. J Clin Virol. 2008 Jul.

Abstract

Background: The clinical significance of the presence of more than one type of virus in the respiratory specimens of children with respiratory infections is not clear.

Objectives: To describe the clinical characteristics of multiple viral infections versus single infection by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in hospitalized infants.

Study design: This is a prospective study conducted in all infants under 2 years of age admitted for acute respiratory infection (September 2000-June 2003) in a secondary teaching hospital. Virological diagnosis was made by two different multiplex reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays in nasopharyngeal aspirates. We describe the clinical characteristics of the patients with multiple viral infections and compare them to a group of 86 randomly selected patients infected only with RSV.

Results: 749 specimens taken were analyzed. Respiratory viruses were detected in 65.9% of the samples. 86 children had multiple viral infections (17.4% of all positive specimens). The most frequent clinical diagnosis in this group was recurrent wheezing in 44% and bronchiolitis in 52%. Fever was significantly more frequent (p<0.001), hospital stays were longer (p=0.05), and antibiotic treatment was used more (p=0.03) in infants with multiple viral infections than in the RSV-infected group.

Conclusions: Multiple viral infections are frequent in hospitalized children with respiratory tract disease (17.4%). Multiple viral infections are linked to higher fever, longer hospital stays and more frequent use of antibiotics than in the case of infants with single RSV infections.

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