Department of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA.
J Infect Dis. 2012 Nov;206(9):1342-9. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jis504. Epub 2012 Sep 25.
The risk of developing childhood asthma has been linked to the severity and etiology of viral respiratory illnesses in early childhood. Since inner-city infants have unique environmental exposures, we hypothesized that patterns of respiratory viral infections would also be distinct.
We compared the viral etiology of respiratory illnesses in 2 groups: a cohort of 515 infants from 4 inner-city areas and a cohort of 285 infants from mainly suburban Madison, Wisconsin. Nasal secretions were sampled during periods of respiratory illness and at 1 year of age and were analyzed for viral pathogens by multiplex polymerase chain reaction.
Overall, inner-city infants had lower rates of viral detection. Considering specific viruses, sick urban infants had lower rates of detectable rhinovirus or respiratory syncytial virus infection and higher rates of adenovirus infection. Every urban site had a higher proportion of adenovirus-positive samples associated with illnesses (10%-21%), compared with Madison (6%).
These findings provide evidence that inner-city babies have different patterns of viral respiratory illnesses than babies who grow up in a more suburban location. These findings raise important questions about the etiology of virus-negative illnesses in urban infants and the possibility of long-term consequences of early life infections with adenovirus in this population.
儿童哮喘的发病风险与婴幼儿期病毒性呼吸道疾病的严重程度和病因有关。由于城市内婴儿有独特的环境暴露，我们假设呼吸道病毒感染的模式也会有所不同。
我们比较了两组婴儿的呼吸道疾病的病毒病因：一组是来自 4 个城市地区的 515 名婴儿，另一组是来自威斯康星州麦迪逊市（主要为郊区）的 285 名婴儿。在呼吸道疾病发作期间和 1 岁时采集鼻分泌物样本，并通过多重聚合酶链反应分析病毒病原体。
总体而言，城市内婴儿的病毒检出率较低。考虑到特定病毒，患病的城市婴儿的鼻病毒或呼吸道合胞病毒感染检出率较低，而腺病毒感染率较高。每个城市地区与疾病相关的腺病毒阳性样本比例（10%-21%）都高于麦迪逊（6%）。
这些发现提供了证据，表明城市婴儿的病毒性呼吸道疾病模式与在更郊区环境中长大的婴儿不同。这些发现提出了有关城市婴儿病毒阴性疾病病因以及该人群中腺病毒早期感染可能产生长期后果的重要问题。
