Epidemiological investigation on an epidemic of respiratory infection in schools caused by Adenoviruses B3 and E4 / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To investigate the epidemiological characteristics and causes of an outbreak of respiratory infection in schools.@*Methods@#Epidemiological investigation was carried out on respiratory infection cases in schools. Pharyngeal swab samples of children were collected for respiratory tract virus nucleic acid detection, and hexon genes were amplified. Positive PCR result were sequenced.@*Results@#All cases were in school, involving 2 classes, 12 cases in class 2 (3) and 13 cases in class 3 (4), all on the west side of the 2nd and 3rd floors of teaching building 2. From September 3 to September 12, a total of 25 cases were involved, with the onset peak on the 10th and 11th. The clinical features were fever, cough, sore throat and aching limbs, etc. The onset was aggregated, the course of the disease was about 5 d, the prognosis was good, and there were no deaths. There are 13 males and 12 females. The males to females ratio is 1.08∶1. The age distribution is 7-9 years, with an average of 8.6 years. The result of fluorescence quantitative PCR were negative for influenza A/B virus and positive for adenovirus. The products of positive samples after PCR amplification were sequenced as AdV-3 and AdV-4.@*Conclusions@#The combined result of epidemiological investigation and laboratory tests demonstrated that this epidemic of school respiratory tract infection is an upper respiratory tract infection caused by adenovirus B3 and E4 mixed infection.