Clinical and epidemiological aspects of respiratory syncytial virus lower respiratory tract infections.

ABSTRACT

This paper has analyzed respiratory syncytial virus lower respiratory tract infections in 201 hospitalized children. In children with wheezing, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was significantly higher in those with pneumonia than with syndroma pertussis, while the white blood cell (WBC) count was significantly lower in patients with bronchitis than in those with bronchiolitis and syndroma pertussis. Bronchodilatators were applied in 75.6% and corticosteroids in 20% of patients. Ten patients were ventilated. Fatal disease outcome was observed in one infant. Twelve consecutive-year study of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections showed that 27.3% of these diseases were bronchiolitis and pneumonia.