Human coronavirus OC43 pneumonia in a pediatric cancer patient with down syndrome and acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
In this report, we describe a case of pneumonia due to an infection with human coronaviruses (HCoVs)-OC43 in a pediatric leukemia patient with Down syndrome and febrile neutropenia. Not only the recently discovered HCoVs NL63 or HKU1 but also the prototype strains HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-229E have to be considered as respiratory pathogens in immunocompromised pediatric cancer patients. The routine utilization of polymerase chain reaction-based diagnostic tools would certainly elucidate the etiology of a relevant proportion of "pneumonias of unknown origin" in immunocompromised pediatric patients and would contribute to a better understanding of the role of HCoVs in this setting.
Simon
Arne
A
Children's Hospital Medical Centre, Institutes for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, University of Bonn, Germany. asimon@ukb.uni-bonn.de
Völz
Sebastian
S
Fleischhack
Gudrun
G
Tillman
Ramona
R
Müller
Andreas
A
Bode
Udo
U
Schildgen
Oliver
O
D001483:Base Sequence; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018352:Coronavirus Infections / Q000150:complications*; D028962:Coronavirus OC43, Human; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D016867:Immunocompromised Host; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000150:complications*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D004279:DNA, Viral