Lethal cold germ ‘more common’

The adenovirus, which usually causes mild cold symptoms, can cause severe lung disease in patients. The strain, called Ad14, sent fifty-three people to the hospital, including a 12-day-old infant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Controlling adenovirus outbreaks can be difficult because the germs are easily spread and can live for weeks on objects and surfaces, the agency said. These viruses aren’t life- threatening to otherwise healthy adults, although newborn, elderly and patients with weakened immune systems can become seriously ill.

“Wider circulation of Ad14 might have occurred in recent years and might still be occurring,” according to an editorial note accompanying the report.

Patients in New York, Oregon, Texas and Washington were identified as having the Ad14 strain, according to the report. The one case in New York resulted in the death of the 12-day-old infant in May 2006. In Oregon, 31 patients were identified with the virus; of these, six adults and one infant died from pneumonia. Those cases occurred between March and May this year.

Four cases were reported in a residential-care facility in Washington state. One patient, who already had AIDS, died. In Texas, 106 people at the Lackland Air Force Base were identified as carrying the virus, including 27 who were hospitalized.

Five patients went to the intensive care unit, and one died.

No evidence exists that the outbreaks were related, the CDC said.

The Ad14 strain was first described in 1955, and caused respiratory disease in European military recruits. A number of antiviral drugs, including ribavirin, cidofovir and vidarabine, have been used to treat the illness. No drug has “shown definitive efficacy against adenoviruses,” the authors wrote.

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