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Syn:
Human Parainfluenza Virus Infection
The
parainfluenza
viruses are important causes
of respiratory disease in infants and young children.
Visit:
Influenza(Orthomyxoviruses)
They are indeed
the most common identifiable agents in the croup syndrome and are
second only to respiratory syncytial virus as a cause of lower
respiratory disease requiring hospitalization in infants.
The parainfluenza viruses are distributed worldwide, and the best evidence
of infection is a fourfold rise of antibody titer in convalescent
serum collected 3 to 4 weeks after infection.
The clinical
manifestations vary from no illness or a very mild cold episode to
life-threatening croup and bronchiolitis.
The most common symptom
associated with parainfluenza is a “cold”.
The viruses are transmitted
from person to person by transfer of respiratory tract secretions.
The
virus infects the cells of the upper respiratory tract mucosa, and
multiplication of the viruses in those cells is probably the pathogenic
substrate of the most common clinical manifestation.
Parainfluenze
virus antigen have been demonstrated by immunoflourescence in the
ciliated columnar epithelial cells in the nasal secretions of ill
children.
When the lung
is involved, the pathologic changes are indistinguishable from those
produced by other viral pneumonias.
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