Upper respiratory virus detection without parent-reported illness in children is virus-specific

Area of Science:

• Virology
• Pediatric infectious diseases
• Molecular diagnostics

Background:

• Viral upper respiratory infections (vURIs) can manifest without classic cold/flu-like illness (CFLI) symptoms.
• Understanding virus prevalence in both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases is crucial for accurate diagnosis and management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the relative frequencies of common respiratory virus detection via PCR in children with and without CFLI.
• To assess virus-specific detection rates in relation to CFLI presence.

Main Methods:

• Prospective study of 170 children (aged 1-8.6 years) during the CFLI season.
• Daily parental diaries recorded CFLI episodes.
• Nasal secretions were sampled and analyzed by PCR for adenovirus, coronavirus, influenza, parainfluenza, rhinovirus, and RSV.

Main Results:

• Virus was detected in 415 of 956 samples (43.4%).
• Virus was detected in 64% of CFLI episodes versus 27% of non-CFLI periods.
• Rhinovirus was the most common (64%), followed by mixed viruses (12%) and RSV (7%). RSV, influenza A, and adenovirus were more frequently associated with CFLI (≥85%).

Conclusions:

• The frequency of virus detection without CFLI differs significantly among respiratory viruses.
• Relying solely on CFLI to identify vURIs can introduce virus-specific biases in estimating complication frequencies.