Do asymptomatic respiratory viral infections occur?

Viral respiratory infections can cause wide symptom-severity ranges. Detecting community-acquired respiratory-viruses by amplified molecular methods is becoming routine and such results form components of many research studies [1]. Using these technologies, multiple respiratory-viruses can be detected simultaneously within the same symptomatic patient. However, relatively little attention has been given to the detection of respiratory-viruses within asymptomatic populations [2]. Furthermore, the data describing the detection of respiratory-viruses from “asymptomatic” individuals often fail to define “asymptomatic” or simply report studies from convenient hospital populations without respiratory diagnoses [1].
Source: Journal of Clinical Virology - Category: Virology Authors: Source Type: research