Little Known Virus Second Common Cause of Bronchitis in Children
Researchers have identified human metapneumovirus (HMPV) as a relatively unknown, but frequent cause of hospitalizations in children with respiratory infection, according to the results of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"We found MPV is as important a cause of respiratory illness as influenza, and caused more illness than the three common types of parainfluenza virus combined. In fact, in young children, the burden of MPV was second only to RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) as a cause of bronchiolitis," John Williams, MD, associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University medical Centers said in a press release.
Between 2003 and 2009, the researchers conducted a surveillance study for acute respiratory illness or fever in inpatient and outpatient children aged 5 years or less in three U.S. counties. The overall annual rate of hospitalizations associated with the virus were 1 per 1,000 in children less than 5 years, 3 per 1,000 in infants less than 6 months and 2 per 1,000 in children 6 months to 11 months in age.
Read the full study here.
