"Impact of Viral Lower Respiratory Tract Infection (LRTI) in Early Chil" by Hitesh Deshmukh, Jeffrey Whitsett et al.
 

Impact of Viral Lower Respiratory Tract Infection (LRTI) in Early Childhood (0-2 Years) on Lung Growth and Development and Lifelong Trajectories of Pulmonary Health: A National Institutes of Health (NIH) Workshop Summary

Hitesh Deshmukh, Divisions of Neonatology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Jeffrey Whitsett, Divisions of Neonatology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
William Zacharias, Pulmonary Biology, and Infectious Diseases, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Sing Sing Way, Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Fernando D. Martinez, Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Joseph Mizgerd, Pulmonary Center, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Gloria Pryhuber, Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Golisano Children's Hospital, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, USA.
Namasivayam Ambalavanan, Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
Leonard Bacharier, Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Aruna Natarajan, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Robert Tamburro, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Sara Lin, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Adrienne Randolph, Departments of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Departments of Anaesthesia and Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Gustavo Nino, Division of Pediatric Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, Children's National Hospital, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA.
Asuncion Mejias, Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
Octavio Ramilo, Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

11-20-2024

Journal

Pediatric pulmonology

DOI

10.1002/ppul.27357

Keywords

mother‐infant dyads; pulmonary immune ontogeny; viral LRTI

Abstract

Viral lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) are ubiquitous in early life. They are disproportionately severe in infants and toddlers (0-2 years), leading to more than 100,000 hospitalizations in the United States per year. The recent relative resilience to severe Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) observed in young children is surprising. These observations, taken together, underscore current knowledge gaps in the pathogenesis of viral lower respiratory tract diseases in young children and respiratory developmental immunology. Further, early-life respiratory viral infections could have a lasting impact on lung development with potential life-long pulmonary sequelae. Modern molecular methods, including high-resolution spatial and single-cell technologies, in concert with longitudinal observational studies beginning in the prenatal period and continuing into early childhood, promise to elucidate developmental pulmonary and immunophenotypes following early-life viral infections and their impact on trajectories of future respiratory health. In November 2019, under the auspices of a multi-disciplinary Workshop convened by the National Heart Lung Blood Institute and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, experts came together to highlight the challenges of respiratory viral infections, particularly in early childhood, and emphasize the knowledge gaps in immune, virological, developmental, and clinical factors that contribute to disease severity and long-term pulmonary morbidity from viral LRTI in children. We hope that the scientific community will view these challenges in clinical care on pulmonary health trajectories and disease burden not as a window of susceptibility but as a window of opportunity.

Department

Pediatrics

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