Community-Wide, Contemporaneous Circulation of a Broad Spectrum of Human Rhinoviruses in Healthy Australian Preschool-Aged Children During a 12-Month Period

Ian M. Mackay, Stephen B. Lambert, Cassandra E. Faux, Katherine E. Arden, Michael D. Nissen, Theo P. Sloots, Terence M. Nolan

Human rhinovirus (HRV) replication triggers exacerbation of asthma and causes most acute respiratory illnesses (ARIs), which may manifest as influenza-like illness. The recent assignment of 60 previously unknown HRV types to a third HRV species, Human rhinovirus C, raised questions about the prevalence of these picornavirus types in the community, the extent of HRV diversity at a single site, and whether the HRVs have an equally diverse clinical impact on their hosts. We quantified HRV diversity, and there was no clinical impact attributable to HRV species and genotypes among a community population of preschool-aged children with ARI who provided respiratory samples during 2003. All HRV species were represented among 138 children with ARI, and 74 distinct HRV types were cocirculating. Fever accompanied 32.8% of HRV-positive ARI cases. HRVs were less likely than DNA viruses to be codetected with another virus, suggesting virus interference at the community level, demonstrated by the inverse correlation between influenza virus detection and HRV detection.