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Croup, or laryngotracheobronchitis, is characterized by breathing difficulty and a “barking” cough; peak incidence is in children aged 7 to 36 months. The condition is generally caused by a virus — most commonly, a parainfluenza virus (PIV), although other respiratory viruses and even measles virus can be involved. In a recent study, investigators used contemporary molecular methods to determine the etiology of croup and to explore the possible role of a newly discovered human coronavirus, HCoV-NL63.
The study involved 225 children hospitalized for croup at a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, between January 2005 and June 2009. Nasopharyngeal aspirates were collected at the time of presentation from 182 of them. Multiplex reverse-transcriptase…