A New Form of the Common Cold
New Form of Adenovirus Breaks Out in the United States
The first reported case took place in New York in May 2006. A baby there was born after a full-term pregnancy with no complications. Within three days, however, it was obvious that the infant was ill. It died at 12 days old from the new form of adenovirus.
An outbreak from February to June of 2007 sickened a number of people at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Sixteen cases were severe enough to require hospitalization, and one of those hospitalized died. The fatality was reported to be a 19-year old trainee.
In April 2007, a cluster of thirty-one cases occurred at a hospital in the Portland, Oregon area. Seven of those patients succumbed to severe pneumonia brought on by the new strain of adenovirus. The median age of the patients who died was 63 years, including one infant that was one month old.
The last reported case took place in a hospital in Washington state. Four patients aged 40 to 62 years at the hospital were infected and one - an AIDS patient - died from the infection.
The new virus is a mutated form of Ad14, one of around 50 varieties of adenovirus. Ad14 was first identified in 1955. In 1969 it caused a large rash of illnesses among military recruits in Europe but has rarely been seen since, although more cases have been reported in recent years.
Adenovirus outbreaks are common in places where large numbers of people live in close quarters for an extended time. Such outbreaks occurred frequently enough on military bases that the government inoculated recruits against two variants of adenovirus (Ad4 and Ad7) between 1971 and 1999. Those vaccines are no longer available and new ones are being tested, with no promising results as yet.
Although adenovirus can be a severe illness for newborns and the elderly, it is generally not dangerous to healthy adults. It is the danger to such healthy adults, coupled with the fact that there are no reliable vaccines to combat this virus, that have some concerned about this new mutation. The CDC, however, has not expressed concern or offered any special recommendations related to these cases.
Published by Mike Wever
Mike Wever is a computer expert, sometimes video producer, and editor of a small press magazine called Wanderings. View profile
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- Adenovirus outbreaks are well known on military installations.
- Such viruses are typically a threat only to infants, elderly, and those with weak immune systems.
- The CDC does not consider outbreaks an immediate threat.