Immunology of respiratory viral infections

Viral infections of the respiratory tract represent a major cause of morbidity and inconvenience in all age groups. In addition, several thousand deaths can be attributed annually to these infections, especially those occurring at the extremes of age. Knowledge of the nature of the immune response in the respiratory tract is essential to vaccine development and to understanding disease pathogenesis. This chapter describes advances in our understanding of how the immune system contributes to eradication of infection, prevention of subsequent infection, and pathogenesis of disease itself.