Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Oct 1;200(7):1096-103.
doi: 10.1086/605697.

Clinical and molecular epidemiology of human rhinovirus C in children and adults in Hong Kong reveals a possible distinct human rhinovirus C subgroup

Susanna K P Lau  1 , Cyril C Y Yip, Ada W C Lin, Rodney A Lee, Lok-Yee So, Yu-Lung Lau, Kwok-Hung Chan, Patrick C Y Woo, Kwok-Yung Yuen
Affiliations

Clinical and molecular epidemiology of human rhinovirus C in children and adults in Hong Kong reveals a possible distinct human rhinovirus C subgroup

Susanna K P Lau et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: A novel human rhinovirus (HRV) species, HRV-C, was recently discovered, but its clinical features and epidemiology, compared with HRV-A and HRV-B, remains poorly understood, especially in adults.

Methods: One thousand two hundred nasopharyngeal aspirate samples obtained from hospitalized children and adults during a 1-year period were subject to reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction to detect HRV. The clinical and molecular epidemiology of the 3 HRV species was analyzed.

Results: HRVs were detected in 178 (29.7%) of 600 nasopharyngeal aspirate samples from children and 42 (7%) of 600 nasopharyngeal aspirate samples from adults. HRV-A was most prevalent (n=11), followed by HRV-C (n=91) and HRV-B (n=18). Although upper respiratory tract infection was the most common presentation in children, 8 (62%) of the 13 adults with HRV-C infection had pneumonia, compared with 6 (27%) of the 22 adults with HRV-A infection (P<.05). Wheezing episodes were also more common among individuals with HRV-C (37%) and HRV-A (20%) infection than among those with HRV-B (0%) infection (P<.05). Clinical and molecular data analysis revealed HRV-C as a frequent cause of community and institutionalized outbreaks. A diverse set of HRV-C genotypes was circulating throughout the year, among which a potential distinct subgroup of strains was observed.

Conclusion: HRV-C is associated with pneumonia in adults and outbreaks of respiratory infections requiring hospitalization. A potential novel HRV-C subgroup was identified.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Seasonality of the 3 human rhinovirus (HRV) species in the present study
Figure 2
Figure 2
Phylogenetic tree of the VP4 region of the 91 human rhinovirus (HRV) C strains and HRV strains detected in patients with >1 NPA samples with positive results. Two hundred one nucleotide positions in each VP4 region were included in the analysis. All field strains in the present study are indicated with dates of detection. Strains detected from adults are marked with asterisks. Strains associated with pneumonia are marked with arrows. The 5 strains with the same nucleotide differences detected from 5 patients within 3 days are shaded. The 6 strains of 3 different clusters (2 closely related strains from each cluster) associated with pneumonia are marked with a plus sign. The scale bar indicates the estimated number of substitutions per 50 bases. The HRV-QPM strain was from Queensland. The GenBank accession numbers of the previously published sequences are as follows: HRV-QPM, EF186077; HRV89, A10937; HRV14, NC_001490; HRV-C 024, NC_009996; HRV-C 025, EF582386; and HRV-C 026, EF582387
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Macfarlane JT, Colville A, Guion A, Macfarlane RM, Rose DH. Prospective study of aetiology and outcome of adult lower-respiratory-tract infections in the community. Lancet. 341:511–4. - PubMed
    1. Ruiz M, Ewig S, Marcos MA, et al. Etiology of community-acquired pneumonia: impact of age, comorbidity, and severity. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 160:397–405. - PubMed
    1. Peiris JS, Lai ST, Poon LL, et al. Coronavirus as a possible cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Lancet. 361:1319–25. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fouchier RA, Hartwig NG, Bestebroer TM, et al. A previously undescribed coronavirus associated with respiratory disease in humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 101:6212–6. - PMC - PubMed
    1. van der Hoek L, Pyrc K, Jebbink MF, et al. Identification of a new human coronavirus. Nat Med. 10:368–73. - PMC - PubMed