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Symptoms of adenovirus infection
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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Frequent symptoms of adenovirus infection in children are shortness of breath and cough, which becomes wet from the first days of the disease. In young children, the cough is often strong, persistent, and scattered wet and dry wheezing may be heard in the lungs, arising due to exudative inflammation in the lower respiratory tract.
The pathognomonic symptom of adenovirus infection is damage to the mucous membranes of the eyes. Conjunctivitis can be catarrhal, follicular, membranous. Damage to the conjunctiva of the eyes can occur from the 1st day of illness or later - on the 3rd-5th day. Usually one eye is affected first, on the 2nd day the conjunctiva of the other eye is involved in the process. Older children complain of burning, stinging, a sensation of a foreign body in the eyes. The skin of the eyelids is moderately edematous, hyperemic, the eyes are half-open. The conjunctiva is sharply hyperemic, granular, edematous. In some cases, a fairly dense grayish-white film is visible on the conjunctiva. Most often, the lower eyelid is affected, but sometimes the film is located on the upper eyelid. Unlike diphtheria of the eye, the film in adenovirus infection never spreads beyond the conjunctiva.
Conjunctivitis is the "calling card" of adenovirus infection. The appearance of membranous conjunctivitis allows clinical diagnosis of adenovirus infection.
Due to exudative inflammation, the patient's face is pasty, the eyelids are swollen, there is a slight purulent discharge from the eyes, and profuse nasal discharge.
With adenovirus infection, moderate enlargement of the cervical lymph nodes is often detected, somewhat less often, enlargement of the liver and spleen is noted. At the height of clinical manifestations in young children, intestinal disorders are possible in the form of frequent (up to 4-5 times a day) loose stools without pathological impurities.
In the peripheral blood, the number of leukocytes is usually normal; only in the first days of the disease is a slight leukocytosis with neutrophilia possible, lymphopenia is noted, and the ESR is slightly increased.
[ Adenovirus infection in newborns and children of the first year of life
Newborns rarely get adenovirus infection due to passive immunity received from the mother transplacentally. However, if the mother has no immunity, newborns are susceptible to the pathogen from the first days of life. Adenovirus infection at this age has some features. Body temperature is usually subfebrile, there are no symptoms of intoxication, catarrhal symptoms are manifested by nasal congestion, a weak cough. Difficulty breathing through the nose leads to severe anxiety in the child, sleep disorders, and refusal to breastfeed.
In newborns and children of the first year of life, adenovirus infection is often accompanied by an upset stomach; enlarged lymph nodes and conjunctivitis are rare. Bronchitis with obstructive syndrome, pneumonia and other bacterial complications often occur. In premature babies, the disease can occur with a normal or even reduced body temperature.
Despite the vagueness of clinical symptoms at the onset of the disease, the course of adenovirus infection in children aged 1 year is severe, and almost all fatal outcomes occur at this age.