The effective contribution of viral respiratory infection to wheezing illness in hospitalised young children

This thesis addresses significant issues in the diagnosis and pathogenesis of childhood respiratory infections. Aims of the project were to develop molecular tools to assess viral load, to examine the relationship between viral load RV-C and severity of illness and to investigate innate immune responses in RV-C infections. This thesis extends the existing knowledge on virus induced wheezing illness and demonstrates that magnitude of replication does not significantly contribute to disease outcome. Conversely, it appears that the innate immune response for which in part is driven by pro-inflammatory, neutrophilic inflammation may play a substantial role in severity of disease.