Impact of rhinoviruses on pediatric community-acquired pneumonia

Abstract

This study of 592 children seen in our Emergency Department with radiographically confirmed community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) was designed to evaluate the role of rhinoviruses (RVs) in the disease. The respiratory secretions of each child were assayed using RVP Fast in order to detect 17 respiratory viruses, and the RV-positive samples were characterised by means of real-time polymerase chain reaction and sequencing. RVs were identified in 172 cases (29.0%): 48/132 children aged<1 year (36.3%), 80/293 aged 1-3 years (27.3%), and 44/167 aged≥4 years (26.3%). Sequencing demonstrated that 82 RVs (49.1%) were group A, 17 (10.1%) group B, and 52 (31.1%) group C; 21 (12.2%) were untyped. RVs were found as single agents in 99 cases, and together with two or more other viruses in 73 (40.7%). There were only marginal differences between the different RV groups and between single RV infection and RV co-infections. RV CAP is frequent not only in younger but also in older children, and RV-A is the most common strain associated with it. The clinical relevance of RV CAP seems to be mild to moderate without any major differences between the A and B strains and the recently identified RV C.