Published 1 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a598
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a598

Letters

Community acquired pneumonia

What about viral community acquired pneumonias?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Although Durrington and Summers mention that viruses are a cause of community acquired pneumonia (CAP), they seem to have disregarded respiratory viruses in their review.1 I was intrigued by the absence of "respiratory viruses" as a cause of CAP in intensive care.

A quick PubMed review of the literature (limited to articles in English and papers on adult patients in the past three years) confirms that viruses are an important cause of CAP. The frequency of viral aetiologies in a sample of studies of CAP published in this period was 15%, 29%, 32%, 23%, and 56%.2 3 4 5

Durrington and Summers are not alone in neglecting respiratory viruses during a discussion of CAP. In the most recent update to the British Thoracic Society guidelines on CAP, the word "virus" appears only once in the entire 19 page document.

The term community acquired pneumonia does not refer to bacterial infections only. Perhaps this . . . [Full text of this article]

G Y Shin, locum consultant virologist

1 Infection and Immunity, 5/F North Wing, St Thomas’ Hospital, London SE1 7EH

gyshin@doctors.org.uk


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Relevant Article

Recent changes in the management of community acquired pneumonia in adults
Hannah J Durrington and Charlotte Summers
BMJ 2008 336: 1429-1433. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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