title: Frequency of viral etiology in symptomatic adult upper respiratory tract infections.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the frequency of viral pathogens causing upper respiratory tract infections in non-hospitalized, symptomatic adults in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
  
  
  METHODS
  Respiratory samples (nasal/throat swabs) were collected between August 2010 and November 2012 and real time PCR was used to detect different viral pathogens.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Viruses were detected in 32.1% (43/134) of samples from 101 patients. Specifically, 9% (12/134) were positive for HBoV, 8.2% (11/134) were positive for HAdV, 5.2% (7/134) were positive for HRV, and 1.5% (2/134) were positive for FLUBV or HMPV, as single infections. HRSV-A, HPIV-3, and HCoV-HKU1 were detected in one (0.75%) sample each. Co-infections were detected in 4.8% (6/134) of the samples. Peaks of viral infections were observed in March, April, May, August, and October. However, positive samples were detected all year round. Only 23.3% (10/43) of the positive samples were collected from patients with febrile illness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results presented in this report suggest that respiratory viral infections are largely under diagnosed in immunocompetent adults. Although the majority of young adult infections are not life-threatening they may impose a significant burden, especially in developing countries since these individuals represent a large fraction of the working force.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Raquel Cirlene da
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Gabriella da Silva
authors.initials: Gda S
authors.lastname: Mendes
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Miguel Angel
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Rojas
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ariane Ribeiro
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Amorim
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: José Nelson
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Couceiro
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Omar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lupi
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Elabras
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Gisele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pires
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Solange
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Valle
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Electronic address: nsantos@micro.ufrj.br.
authors.forename: Norma
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Santos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D012621:Seasons; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Epidemiology; Respiratory infection; Viral diagnosis; Viral infection