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More children hospitalized for RSV than flu
Infections associated with respiratory syncytial virus may create a much greater burden among previously healthy children throughout the first five years of life than previously thought, results of a study indicated.
Data from prospective, population-based surveillance involving 5,067 children aged younger than 5 years from three U.S. sites indicated that RSV was responsible for one in 13 primary care visits, one in 38 ED visits and one in 334 hospitalizations each year. Although RSV–associated illnesses among this population were most commonly treated in the pediatric office, disease severity was similar compared with children treated in the ED. – by Nicole Blazek
N Engl J Med.2009;360:588-598.
Most children who had RSV infections were not high risk but were normal, healthy children, and most outpatient RSV infections are not diagnosed as such without the use of a lab procedure, ie, culture and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. As the study results point out, 2.1 million children aged younger than 5 years with RSV infection require medical attention each year, and this is not just limited to infancy but occurs throughout the first five years of life. Therefore, RSV infections in young children have a significant effect on the cost of medical care in this age group.
– Gary S. Rachelefsky, MD
Infectious Diseases in Children Editorial Board member