Objective:To study the clinical effect and safety of aerosol inhalation of recombinant human interferon α-2b( P. puti-da) in the children with viral upper respiratory tract infection ( VURI) . Methods: Totally 100 children diagnosed as viral upper re-spiratory tract infection were randomly divided into the observation group and the control group with 50 cases in each. The two groups of children were both given symptomatic and supportive treatment, and the observation group was given IFN-α2b (P. putida) 150 000 IU·kg-1 ·d-1 in 2-4 ml 0. 9% sodium chloride injection with aerosol inhalation, qd, 5-10 min each time, and the control group was given ribavirin 10-15 mg·kg-1 ·d-1 in 5% glucose injection 150 ml, ivd, and a course of treatment was continuous 5 d. The fever, cold symptoms ( catarrh, cough, malaise) and clinical efficiency of the two groups were compared. Results:The defervescence effect of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group after the treatment(P<0. 05). The effect in the children with mild and moderate cough in the observation group was better than that in the control group, and the changes were statistically sig-nificant difference(P<0. 01). The heat range, cough fading time, catarrh symptom and systemic symptom disappearance time in the observation group were significantly better than those in the control group(P<0. 05). The clinical efficient rate of the observation group was 96. 0%, which was significantly higher than that (84. 0%) in the control group(P<0. 05) . Conclusion: Combined with the conventional therapy, aerosol inhalation of IFN-α2b can be effectively and safely used for treating viral upper respiratory tract infec-tion in children, which is worthy of popularized use in clinics.