Cases of pneumonia caused by a novel adenovirus strain called Ad14 started to appear in 2005. Now the US Centers for Disease Control reports that, in four unrelated outbreaks across the US in the past 18 months, Ad14 has caused severe pneumonia in at least 140 people, including babies and healthy young adults, and killed 10 of them. There may well have been many more cases, since doctors rarely test for adenovirus. The exception is military doctors, as for reasons unknown adenovirus is especially common among recruits in training camps. The US military used to vaccinate against two strains of adenovirus, but stopped in 1999 Adenovirus infections subsequently soared on US bases and previously uncommon strains have emerged, including, for the first time in the western hemisphere, Ad14. A nasty new strain of adenovirus - which usually only causes mild colds and other infections - has been linked to outbreaks of severe pneumonia. |
No comments:
Post a Comment