whooping cough and diphtheria are vaccine preventable diseases. diphtheria, due to corynebacterium diphtheriae or corynebactium ulcerans, two gram positive bacteria, is a serious upper respiratory tract disease with high morbidity and mortality rates. vaccination, via an acellular vaccine composed only of purified, detoxified diphtheria toxin, has significantly reduced the incidence of the dise...

Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) is characterized by granulomatous inflammation and systemic vasculitis with a predilection for the lungs and kidneys. In most patients WG begins with a localized organ involvement of the upper respiratory tract that progresses to systemic disease (generalized WG) (1). Because of the life-threatening nature of systemic vasculitis, much effort has concentrated on elu...

BACKGROUND Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most important viral respiratory pathogen of infancy and childhood. Much has been written about inpatients with severe disease. Inpatients, however, represent only a minority of RSV-infected children. We studied the characteristics of symptomatic outpatient RSV infection in healthy children to gain a better understanding of RSV disease and to ...

objectives we assessed the prevalence of three common viruses including; respiratory syncytial virus (rsv), human rhinovirus (hrv), and human metapneumovirus (hmpv), in children with acute wheezing. patients and methods ninety six wheezy children, 48 males (50%) and 48 females (50%)under the age of 5 years, were enrolled in the study. all patients visited as outpatients or inpatients when refer...

BACKGROUND Acute respiratory tract infections (ARI) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries, especially in Africa. This study sought to determine whether human coronaviruses (HCoVs) are associated with upper respiratory tract infections among older children and adults in Ghana. METHODS We conducted a case control study among older children and adults in three ...

Rhinoviruses are the major cause of the common cold and a trigger of acute asthma exacerbations. Whether these exacerbations result from direct infection of the lower airway or from indirect mechanisms consequent on infection of the upper airway alone is currently unknown. Lower respiratory infection was investigated in vitro by exposing primary human bronchial epithelial cells to rhinoviruses ...

It has recently been suggested that Chlamydia trachomatis may be a common cause of acute pharyngitis in adults. In a prospective investigation of 95 college students with acute pharyngitis, C. trachomatis was not isolated from any pharyngeal cultures. Further investigations are needed to better define the role of C. trachomatis in upper respiratory tract infections.

BACKGROUND Respiratory viral diagnosis of upper respiratory tract infections has largely developed through multiplex molecular techniques. Although the sensitivity of different types of upper respiratory tract samples seems to be correlated to the number of sampled cells, this link remains largely unexplored. METHODS Our study included 800 upper respiratory tract specimens of which 400 negati...