BACKGROUND Sensitive diagnostic assays have increased the detection of viruses in asymptomatic individuals. The clinical significance of asymptomatic respiratory viral infection in infants is unknown. METHODS High-throughput, quantitative polymerase chain reaction assays were used to detect 13 common respiratory viruses from nasopharyngeal specimens collected during 2028 visits from 362 infan...

We did a replication of the study by Teng et al, at the primary care clinic University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) in the year 2001, where 12 medical officers recorded 203 episodes of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). Although there were some differences in the demographic and clinical characteristics of URTI in both settings (UMMC had significantly fewer children and febrile patien...

BACKGROUND Daycare attendance is an established risk factor for upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) and acute otitis media (AOM). Whether this results in higher use of healthcare resources during childhood remains unknown. We aim to assess the effect of first year daycare attendance on the timing and use of healthcare resources for URTI and AOM episodes during early childhood. METHODS I...

BACKGROUND Recent literature shows that there is a large mismatch between the US patients' expected duration of acute cough illness and the actual duration. It has been suggested that this discrepancy may lead to antibiotic misuse. Currently, there is limited relevant information for the Chinese. This study aims to investigate the duration that Hong Kong Chinese expect their upper respiratory t...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the outcome of olfactory function in patients with olfactory loss following infections of the upper respiratory tract (post-URTI) or head trauma. DESIGN Retrospective patient-based study. SETTING Smell and Taste Outpatient Clinic at a university hospital. PATIENTS A total of 361 patients (228 women, 133 men) were included. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Olfactory functio...

PURPOSE To evaluate whether yogurt supplemented with a probiotic strain could protect middle-aged and elderly people from acute upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) using a randomized, blank-controlled, parallel-group design. PATIENTS AND METHODS Two hundred and five volunteers aged ≥45 years were randomly divided into two groups. The subjects in the intervention group were orally admini...

The World Health Organization marked “Antimicrobial resistance: no action today, no cure tomorrow” as the theme of World Health Day 2011. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an urgent global threat.1 The misuse of antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) is a main cause of AMR. Local studies showed that 237 (23.7%) of 1002 interviewed citizens were prescribed antibiotics for thei...

BACKGROUND This study investigated the influence of 2-months ingestion of an "immune" nutrient fortified breakfast cereal on immune function and upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) in healthy children during the winter season. METHODS Subjects included 73 children (N=42 males, N=31 females) ranging in age from 7 to 13 years (mean±SD age, 9.9±1.7 years), and 65 completed all phases of the...