Journal of Medical Virology 78:408–416 (2006) Impact of Human Metapneumovirus and Human Cytomegalovirus Versus Other Respiratory Viruses on the Lower Respiratory Tract

Viral respiratory tract infections in lung trans-plant recipients may be severe. During three consecutive winter-spring seasons, 49 sympto-matic lung transplant recipients with suspected respiratory viral infection, and 26 asymptomatic patients were investigated for presence of respiratory viruses either in 56 nasopharyngeal aspirate or 72 bronchoalveolar lavage samples taken at different times after transplantation. On the whole, 1 asymptomatic (3.4%) and 28 symp-tomatic (57.1%) patients were positive for human metapneumovirus (hMPV, 4 patients), influenza virus A (3 patients), and B (2 patients), respiratory syncytial virus (2 patients), human coronavirus (2patients), humanparainfluenzavirus (2patients)