Human metapneumovirus
-- a pathogen first identified in 2001 -- is responsible for
12 percent of lower respiratory tract infections that occur
in young children, according to a report published in the New
England Journal of Medicine.
The findings indicate
that "metapneumovirus infection accounts for a substantial proportion
of respiratory tract illnesses that were previously undiagnosed,"
Dr. Kenneth McIntosh, co-author of an accompanying editorial,
told Reuters Health. "There are still some undiagnosed cases,
but this fills in a lot of the gap."
Dr. McIntosh of
the Children's Hospital in Boston also noted that the work,
conducted in the US, "corroborates what has been found in Europe,
Australia, and elsewhere."
In the study, Dr.
James E. Crowe and colleagues, from Vanderbilt University in
Nashville, Tennessee, tested for metapneumovirus in nasal-wash
specimens obtained from children with acute respiratory tract
illness over a 25-year period.
During this period,
321 children were diagnosed with a lower respiratory tract infection
of unknown cause. Nasal-wash specimens were available from 248
of these children.
Testing of these
specimens revealed evidence of metapneumovirus in 49 (20 percent)
of the subjects, the authors note. Applied to the entire pediatric
population, metapneumovirus infection accounted for 12 percent
of all lower respiratory tract infections.
Children infected
with the virus were an average of 11.6 months old, and boys
outnumbered girls almost 2 to 1. The most common clinical symptoms,
found in 59 percent of cases, was bronchiolitis followed by
croup and asthma exacerbation.
"Right now, I don't
think there is a lot you would do differently in managing a
child with metapneumovirus infection versus another viral infection,"
Dr. McIntosh said.
Still, knowing that
a particular infection is caused by this virus "is useful in
avoiding antibiotics and, in the future, may become more important
as new antiviral agents become available."
SOURCE: New England
Journal of Medicine, January 29, 2004.
Reference
Source 89
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