Persistence of human rhinovirus (HRV) is related to food sensitisation in children hospitalised for asthma.

Background: Human rhinovirus (HRV) is the major cause of asthma attacks requiring hospitalisation in children although allergies play a part. A recently discovered strain, HRVC, is thought to be a major cause of these infections. Little is known, however, about the relative roles of the various HRV strains in childhood asthma attacks. In this study, we sought to identify HRV subtypes and their relationship to sensitization and asthma severity and subphenotypes in children admitted to hospital with asthma. Method(s): The Melbourne Air Pollen Children's and Adolescent Health (MAPCAH) study is investigating the role of pollen and its interaction with air pollutants and respiratory infections in asthma hospital admissions among children aged 2-17 years. At admission, all participants undergo nose/ throat swabs (NTS) for respiratory viruses and follow-up NTS are obtained 9 weeks after admission to assess viral shedding during the control period. Respiratory viruses are identified by multiplex PCR. PRV positive samples at are sub-typed by sequencing the VP4 and partial VP2 gene sequence of PRV. This region distinguishes between HRV and enteroviruses and differentiates all known subtypes of HRV. Result(s): Two hundred and sixty-nine children admitted with a diagnosis of asthma have been recruited. Fifty-seven females and 105 males were detected with a virus at admission. 151 (60%) were picornavirus. Of those, 30 participants who were shedding picornavirus virus at admission continued to shed it when tested 9 weeks after the admission. Compared to participants stopped shedding, those who continue to shed were more likely to be sensitized to egg and peanut 34% versus 21%, OR = 2.96, (95%CI 1.02-8.58), P = 0.04. We genotyped a subset (n = 114) of HRV specimens detected at admission. Of the HRVs detected at admission, 52% were identified as HRVC. A median of 9 weeks after the admission, retesting, detected rhinovirus in 30 of these participants, including 33% with HRVC. Among