A study shows that children's noses contain evidence of serious pulmonary infections

Studies show that tiny organisms in a child's nose could offer avenues for improving the diagnosis and treatment of serious lung infections.

Experts have found that the composition of the microbiome – the population of bacteria and viruses found in large numbers in the body – has been altered in the nose of children with respiratory infections compared to that of their peers in good health. health.

This difference predicts how long children have to spend in the hospital and helps to identify those who are likely to recover naturally, thus reducing the need for antibiotics.

The researchers say the results also help explain why some children are more likely than others to develop infections and could play a key role in preventing serious lung infections.

Infections of the lower respiratory tract, including pneumonia and bronchiolitis, are one of the leading causes of death in children under five worldwide. Symptoms include shortness of breath, weakness and fever.

Doctors from the University of Edinburgh collaborated with teams in the Netherlands to collect samples from more than 150 children under six years old hospitalized with LRTI. They compared these samples with those of 300 healthy children.

They found that the microbiome at the back of the nose and throat was linked to that seen in the lungs, which facilitated the understanding and diagnosis of infections.

Children with LRTI had a different microbiome profile – including types and amounts of individual viral and bacterial organisms – compared to healthy children, experts found.

These profiles could indicate that 92% of children are healthy or sick when they are combined with factors such as age. This was true regardless of the symptoms of the child.

Experts say this breaks with traditional thinking that symptoms predict whether a virus or bacteria is causing the disease and could affect the decision to use antibiotics or not.

The profile of the microbiome also helped scientists to predict the length of stay in the child's hospital, marker of the severity of the infection.

The study, funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, is published in the journal Lancet respiratory medicine.

Provided by
University of Edinburgh