Study of adenoviruses in lower respiratory tract acute infection in children in Tehran 1999-2000

Background and Since adenoviruses could be one of the causes of health problems in children and due to lack of epidemiologic evidences, always will be misdiagnosed with bacterial infections and treated with antibiotics. This study was planned and performed to determine the frequency of adenoviruses in lower respiratory tract infections in children under 14 years referring to 6 Tehran educational and treatment centers. Ïn order to perform this study, 231 samples from lower respiratory tract of the patients suffering from acute infection were collected and transferred to transport (Hank’s) medium and kept at –20oÇ then identified with the help of fluorescent antibody technique. Ïn this study, 9.5% of the samples indicated positive for adenovirus. Âlso most of clinical pictures belonged to pneumoniae (68.2%). The highest rate of infection (63.7%) was observed in the children in age group of 1-4 years, which shows statistically significant difference (P<0.005). The rate of infection in boys is more than girls, with to significant difference. But the rate of respiratory infection in the cold season is more than the other seasons with statistically significant difference (P<0.001). Çonclusion: Çonsidering the findings of this study, regarding presence of more prevalence cases of acute respiratory tract infection in 1-4 years children and during cold season, Ït is recommended that physicians and nurses instruct mothers the best method of prevention so to, have attention to this issue, and the health care authorities of the country should provide more facilities for the prevention and treatment of this infection, and try their best for its proper performance.