Acute life threatening event (ALTE) in an infant with human coronavirus HCoV‐229E infection

In this short report we discuss the temporal association between an acute life threatening event (ALTE) and a RT‐PCR confirmed coronavirus HCoV‐229E infection in a 4 months old otherwise healthy infant. More detailed microbiological investigations of affected children even without apparent signs of a respiratory tract infection may help to clarify the etiology in some patients and extend our understanding of the pathogenesis. PCR‐based techniques should be utilized to increase the sensitivity of detection for old and new respiratory viral pathogens in comparable cases. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2007; 42:393–396. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.