Respiratory Infections Vary Among Inner-City and Suburban Infants

Patterns of respiratory infection vary among inner-city and suburban-born infants, leading to the development of different illnesses among the groups, possibly due to levels of exposure to respiratory pathogens in the early years of life.

Researchers hypothesized that asthma, linked with the severity of early-childhood respiratory illness, was more common in inner-city children due to a variation in the patterns of viral infections caused by increased pathogen exposure.    

"Since both the immune system and the lungs are rapidly developing in infancy, chronic infections could influence these developmental processes, leading to long-term changes in lung and/or immune function," they wrote.

After analyzing nasal secretions from 2 cohort studies including 515 inner-city infants and 285 suburban infants, taken during respiratory illness and at 1 year of age, researchers found that rhinoviruses were significantly more common in suburban infants, present in 36% compared with 24.1% in inner-city infants.  

Adenoviruses, inversely, were significantly more common in inner-city infants at 4.8% versus 0.7% in suburban infants.

"Adenovirus is of particular interest relative to long-term outcomes because acute infections can lead to viral shedding for weeks or months," researchers said. 

“These findings raise important questions about…the possibility of long-term consequences of early life infections with adenovirus in this population,” they concluded.

-Michael Potts