New virus may cause childhood diseases - study

A newly discovered virus related to the SARS virus may cause several mysterious childhood ailments, including Kawasaki disease, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

The new virus is a coronavirus, a family of viruses that cause common colds, animal diseases and severe acute respiratory syndrome, a new disease that emerged in China in 2003, killing 800 people globally and causing a worldwide panic before it was contained.

Two studies in the Journal of Infectious Diseases link this new virus to Kawasaki disease, the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed countries.

Jeffrey Kahn and colleagues at Yale University in Connecticut identified what they call the New Haven coronavirus.

They tested 895 ill children under age 5 who had tested negative for other viral infections.

They found 79 of them, or 9 percent, had the New Haven coronavirus. Symptoms included fever, cough, runny nose, rapid breathing, abnormal breath sounds, and low blood oxygen levels.

And 11 babies infected with the new coronavirus were newborns in intensive care units.

The Yale team found genetic evidence of the virus in respiratory secretions taken from an infant with classic signs of Kawasaki disease.

They analyzed respiratory secretions from 11 children diagnosed with Kawasaki disease and 22 children without the disease. Eight of the 11 Kawasaki patients tested positive for the New Haven coronavirus but just one child without Kawasaki symptoms tested positive.

Kawasaki disease can be marked by an eye infection, redness of the mouth or throat, rash, redness or swelling of the hands or feet, and swollen lymph nodes. In some cases the heart is damaged, causing heart disease.

Coronaviruses were known to be common but until recently tests have not been available to diagnose and identify them.