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The common cold is often thought to cause no serious complications, no matter how debilitated the host. However, accumulating evidence suggests that, in immunocompromised patients, rhinoviral infections may be life-threatening. A prospective registry of blood or bone-marrow transplant patients with acute respiratory illnesses at a Houston cancer center included 22 adults who developed rhinoviral infections less than 10 days after transplantation.
In 15 patients (68%), standard upper respiratory symptoms, including cough (67%), fever (47%), and sore throat (47%), resolved without sequelae after a mean of 14 days, although one patient remained ill and shed virus for more than a month. The other 7 patients developed pneumonia that required mech…