Acute viral respiratory tract infections and wheezing at follow-up in children < 3 years

Abstract

Background: Acute viral respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) are the most frequent diseases in children. Aim: To analyze risk factors for ARTIs, to evaluate clinical differences among children with different viral respiratory infection and to study virological risk factors for recurrent wheezing at 3 years follow-up. Methods: We studied 273 children (median age 2.9 months, 167M) hospitalized at the Paediatric Emergency Department, “Sapienza” University of Rome (Oct 2009-May 2014) with ARTIs (148 had RSV infection, 67 hRV, 13 hMPV, 10 hBoV, 29 co-infections and 6 other viruses) and 101 control children. We performed a follow-up after 3 years. Results: Risk factors for ARTIs were the presence of siblings (p Conclusions: Environmental and genetic factors contribute to ARTIs. Clinical entities depend on viral etiology. RSV is the virus. RSV infants had more often long lasting sequelae.