New Respiratory Viruses and the Elderly

Jartti, Laura; Langen, Henriikka; Söderlund-Venermo, Maria; Vuorinen, Tytti; Ruuskanen, Olli; Jartti, Tuomas

Human rhinovirus, the common cold virus, is the most common respiratory pathogen in all age groups [12] . In the two last decades of the last millennium it was thought that two major genetic groups, A and B, and 99 HRV serotypes exist. Novel PCR-based techniques, however, have identified additionally two groups, C and D, and possibly over 150 different HRV strains [24, 89, 90] . Moreover, PCR has markedly increased the detection rates of HRV infections. HRV-infection is often associated with other pulmonary morbidity and is the most common virus (up to 60-70%) associated with exacerbations of asthma of all ages and with COPD in adults and the elderly [91] [92] [93] [94] [95] [96] . In long-term care facilities HRV may cause serious morbidity and mortality, and goes often unrecognized. Louie et al. (2005) reported an epidemic of respiratory illness in a long-term care facility, which caused a mortality rate of 21% (12/56 affected residents died) [10] . Seven of 13 respiratory specimens were culture-positive for rhinovirus [10] . Hicks et al. (2006) reported two nursing home outbreaks of respiratory illness that caused the death of 7 residents out of 294 (2.4%). Of the 29 collected samples, 10 (34%) were positive for rhinovirus [11] . There is an overall paucity of data on HRV-infections in the elderly.