How Contagious Are Common Respiratory Tract Infections?

To the Editor: Musher (March 27 issue)¹ points out that adenoviruses have caused large outbreaks among military recruits, but additional comment is needed. Adenoviruses do cause epidemics in young adults.²⁵ Before vaccination, adenovirus-associated acute respiratory disease affected up to 10 percent of recruits and was responsible for nearly 70 percent of respiratory disease.³ Implementation of an adenovirus-vaccination policy in the military in 1971 resulted in a dramatic reduction in the occurrence of adenovirus-associated acute respiratory disease, but the manufacturer stopped producing the vaccines in 1995.³ Since then, a substantial number of outbreaks of adenovirus infection have occurred.³⁵ Administration . . .