Clinico-epidemiological characteristics of acute respiratory infections caused by coronavirus OC43, NL63 and 229E.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Acute respiratory infection is a very common condition in the general population. The majority of these infections are due to viruses. This study attempted to determine the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of adult patients with respiratory infection by the coronavirus OC43, NL63 and 229E.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Between January 2013 and February 2014, we prospectively studied all patients with suspected clinical respiratory infection by taking throat swabs and performing a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in search of coronavirus.

RESULTS

In 48 cases (7.0% of the 686 enrolled patients; 12.6% of the 381 in whom a virus was detected) the presence of a coronavirus demonstrated. In 24 cases, the virus was OC43 (50%); in 14 cases, the virus was NL63 (29%); and in 10 cases, the virus was 229E (21%). The mean age was 54.5 years, with a slight predominance of men. The most common clinical presentations were nonspecific influenza symptoms (43.7%), pneumonia (29.2%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation (8.3%). Fifty-two percent of the patients required hospitalization, and 2 patients required intensive care. There were no deaths.

CONCLUSION

Acute respiratory infections caused by coronavirus mainly affect middle-aged male smokers, who are often affected by previous diseases. The most common clinical picture has been nonspecific influenza symptoms.