Frequent Respiratory Viral Infections in Children with Febrile Neutropenia - A Prospective Follow-Up Study

Söderman, Martina; Rhedin, Samuel; Tolfvenstam, Thomas; Rotzén-Östlund, Maria; Albert, Jan; Broliden, Kristina; Lindblom, Anna

As infections with respiratory viruses are a common morbidity in children [11] respiratory viruses likely play a significant role in childhood febrile neutropenia. Advances in molecular methods have increased the sensitivity of viral diagnostics tests, with recent studies reporting the detection of respiratory viruses in the nasopharynx in 44-57% of childhood febrile neutropenia episodes using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) [3] [4] [5] 12] . However, the clinical significance of positive PCR findings is unclear, as respiratory viruses have also been detected in asymptomatic immunocompetent children [13] [14] [15] [16] . In addition, some respiratory viruses can be detected weeks after the first infection, which is suggestive of prolonged viral shedding [17, 18] . Here, we describe the results of a longitudinal study involving repeated sampling and the assessment of a broad panel of respiratory viruses by PCR to clarify whether respiratory viruses play a causal role in childhood febrile neutropenia.