Detection and Genetic Characterization of Adenovirus Type 14 Strain in Students with Influenza-Like Illness, New York, USA, 2014-2015

Abstract

During the 2014-15 influenza season, 13/168 respiratory samples from students with influenza-like illness (ILI) at a college in New York, USA, were positive for human adenovirus (HAdV); 4/13 samples were positive for HAdV-B14p1. During influenza season, HAdV should be included in the differential diagnostic panel used to determine the etiology of ILI.

Keywords: Adenoviridae; Canada; HAdV; MiSeq; New Mexico; New York; United States; detection; differential diagnosis; genetic characterization; human adenovirus; human adenovirus 14p1; influenza-like illness; next-generation whole-genome sequencing; serotype 14; viruses.

Figure 1

Phylogenetic tree of human adenoviruses constructed using 7 sequences obtained from college students with influenza-like illness, New York, USA, 2014–2015, and reference sequences of isolates from China (GenBank accession nos. JX892927, JN032132, and JQ824845); an isolate from Texas, USA (accession no. FJ822614); and the prototype strain, de Wit, from the Netherlands (accession no. AY803294). The tree was created by using the maximum-likelihood method based on the Kimura 2-parameter model with 500 bootstrap replicates from the whole-genome sequence of the displayed sequences. Pairwise distances were estimated by using the maximum composite–likelihood approach. All positions containing gaps and missing data were eliminated. Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA6 (14). Scale bar indicates number of substitutions per site. NYS, New York State.

Figure 2

Symptoms experienced by 12 of 13 students with influenza-like illness who were found to be infected with human adenovirus (HAdV)-E4 (n = 8) or HAdV-B14 (n = 3) or co-infected with HAdV-E4 and HAdV-B14 (n = 1), New York, USA, 2014–2015.