Seasonal Coronavirus: A “Common Cold Virus” that May Be Lethal in Severely Immunocompromised Patients

The patients, whose mean age was 46 years (range, 0 3-73 8 years), had been seen at 31 transplant centers in 13 countries in Asia, Australia, and South America Because they received their grafts from unrelated adult donors, cord blood, or haplo-identical family donors, 57% were considered high risk [ ]a mortality rate as high as 8% has been seen in outbreaks in elderly residents of long-term care facilities 1 The mortality rate in patients with lower respiratory infection reported by Pinana and colleagues was 16 7% In an adjusted comparison with cases of lower respiratory tract infection in a similar patient population, mortality was similar to that observed with infections due to respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, and parainfluenza virus — each of which is recognized as a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients