Clinical Virology of Rhinoviruses

This chapter discusses the various aspects of the clinical virology of rhinoviruses. Some attributes of the virus and epidemiology of disease that have clinical relevance, the efficiency of methods for detecting the presence of the virus in the human respiratory tract, and the means by which symptomatic illness is produced by rhinovirus infection of the respiratory tract are described Rhinoviruses cause more infections in humans than any other microorganism. The chapter also discusses the attributes of virus and the epidemiology of disease. These acid-sensitive picornaviruses infect epithelial cells following inoculation onto the nasal mucosa and are detected reliably in nasopharyngeal secretions. Rhinovirus colds occur year round, with a peak of illness in the fall. Type-specific serum antibody correlates with protection against infection. The fact that there are at least 100 different immunotypes makes development of an effective vaccine unlikely. The chapter presents various techniques for the detection of rhinovirus, such as sampling and cell culture, and polymerase chain reaction.