Broad Spectrum Respiratory Pathogen Analysis of Throat Swabs from Military Recruits Reveals Interference Between Rhinoviruses and Adenoviruses

Abstract

Military recruits experience a high incidence of febrile respiratory illness (FRI), leading to significant morbidity and lost training time. Adenoviruses, group A Streptococcus pyogenes, and influenza virus are implicated in over half of the FRI cases reported at recruit center clinics. The etiology of the remaining cases remains unclear. In this study, we explore the background carriage rates of rhinoviruses, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Neisseria meningitidis. The results showed that S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, and N. meningitidis were widely distributed in 86%, 82%, and 76% of recruits, respectively. Rhinovirus was identified in 43% of recruits. Asymptomatic (healthy) recruits were as likely as ill recruits to be positive for all four of these organisms, suggesting that they are not responsible for significant illness in training populations. Recruits with FRI were actually somewhat less likely to carry rhinovirus than healthy recruits, the apparent result of a negative association between adenovirus carriage and rhinovirus carriage. This intriguing discovery may result from temperature repression of rhinoviruses (which are highly temperature sensitive) by the fevers induced by adenovirus infection.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 09, 2010
Accession Number
ADA619734

Entities

People

  • Anthony P. Malanoski
  • Baochuan Lin
  • Christian J. Hansen
  • David A. Stenger
  • Jason Brown
  • Kate M. Blaney
  • Michael Broderick
  • Nina C. Long
  • Tomasz Leski
  • Zheng Wang

Organizations

  • Naval Health Research Center

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Adenoviruses
  • Bacteria
  • Carriages
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Health Services
  • Infection
  • Influenza
  • Marine Corps
  • Medical Personnel
  • Pathogenic Bacteria
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Respiratory Tract Diseases
  • Spreadsheet Software
  • Streptococcus
  • Training
  • Viruses
  • Wound Infections

Readers

  • Infectious Disease/Epidemiology