Human Coronavirus in the 2014 Winter Season as a Cause of Lower Respiratory Tract Infection

Kim, Kyu Yeun; Han, Song Yi; Kim, Ho-Seong; Cheong, Hyang-Min; Kim, Sung Soon; Kim, Dong Soo

When we compared years 2013 and 2014 in terms of HCoV, the parameters we thought could explain the severity of LRTI did not differ. While severity itself due to HCoV was similar, LR-TIs caused by HCoV were much more common in 2014 than in Interestingly, when the data from the Korea CDC showed an increase in HCoV, there was no detected HCoV in our pediatric patients. After about five weeks, HCoV began to be detected in our pediatric patients. It is difficult to determine the reason for the delayed HCoV detection in LRTIs, compared to that in general lower respiratory infections. This study is based on the respiratory virus infection data of the KCDC, which examines references weekly. These references are obtained from the sputum of adults and children who visit primary medical centers due to respiratory infection symptoms, not only for lower but also upper respiratory infection symptoms. This means that those viruses are thought to be the pathogens of the upper respiratory infection, as shown in Fig. 2 . In general, respiratory viruses are spread by children who attend school. They transmit them to adults or infants and young children. In light on this result, we predict that when respiratory infections due to HCoV increase in primary care settings, as reported weekly by the KCDC, lower respiratory infections due to HCoV in children will increase within a few weeks.