A fatal case of viral pneumonia in a child infected with adenovirus type 3.

This report describes the clinical, roentgenologic, pathologic, and virologic findings in a 2 years and ten months old girl who died from a severe pneumonia. Initially, the patient presented with fever and cough for 2 days. Physically, the patient appeared lethargic, and breathing sounds revealed diffuse rales and wheezing. Hemogram showed mild leukocytosis and lymphocyte predominant. Chest X ray revealed diffuse interstitial infiltration of the right upper lung, left upper and left lower lung field. Bacteria infection was first impressed. Although treated with several antibiotics (ampicillin, cefuroxime, amikacin, penicillin, cephazolin, imipenem and vancomycin) in three different hospitals, the patient's condition went downhill and the patient died 2 weeks later. Finally, adenoviurs type 3 was isolated from sputum specimen taken before death and necropsy lung tissue. The lung pathology showed diffuse necrotizing inflammation with fibrinopurulent exudate, and eosinophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies were also noted in the alveolar cells. These data proved the diagnosis of adenovirus pneumonia. This case adds to the evidence that adenovirus type 3 infection during childhood may cause fatal disease.