Clinical characteristics analysis of adult human adenovirus type 7 infection / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of patients infected with human adenovirus type 7 and to provide guidance for early diagnosis and timely control of the outbreak.Methods A total of 301 patients infected with the human adenoviruses who were quarantined in hospital from December 2012 to February 2013 were observed.Epidemiological questionnaires were used to collect data of clinical features of the disease including symptoms,signs,images and laboratory tests.To confirm infection,real time polymerase chain reaction was performed using patients' swabs to detect viral nucleotide.Results Most cases happened in December to the next February.Totally 277 cases of the 301 patients were male,and only 24 cases were female.Mean age was (19.1±1.9) years old,range 15 to 29 years old.Identifiable epidemiologic links were seen between patients.The most common symptoms were fever (100.0％),cough (70.4％),expectoration (48.2％),and sore throat (47.8％).In addition,some patients presented with headache,dizziness,chills,fatigue.The most common signs were pharyngeal congestion (62.5％),enlargement of tonsils (56.5％) and lymphatic follicular hyperplasia (26.6％).Some patients' tonsil was covered with white secretions.Lung images were abnormal in 75 cases,which were presented with mild pneumonia with or without surrounding exudative lesions and pleural effusion in lung images.Laboratory tests showed that the number of white blood cells in the peripheral blood in most of the patients (99.0 ％) was elevated or normal.The proportions of neutrophils (54.2％) and monocytes (80.7％) and the level of C-reactive protein (42.2％) increased,while the proportion of lymphocytes reduced (67.1％).The average course of disease was (6.6±2.9) d.With the treatment of intravenous ribavirin and reduning,all patients were cured.Conclusions Human adenovirus type 7 is quite contagious and may cause epidemic outbreak,especially in winter.The majority exhibits mild symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection with short duration,including fever,cough,expectoration and sore throat.Through timely and active treatment,all patients have a good prognosis.