Prevalence of respiratory syncytial virus infection among hospitalized children presenting with acute lower respiratory tract infections

Objective To evaluate the prevalence of RSV among hospitalized young children presenting with ALRI in Bangalore, India. Methods Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) antigen detection was performed by direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) staining on 77 nasopharyngeal wash samples collected from hospitalized children below 2 years of age with a diagnosis of acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI). Results Out of 77 samples tested for RSV with DFA, 17 (22.1%) were found RSV-positive with a mean age of 8.24± 7.21 months (M:F=1.8:1). Three children had congenital cardiac disease and one child had a history of prematurity. One child had re-infection within one month of primary infection. RSV-infected children were more likely to have a diagnosis of bronchiolitis than RSV-negative children (p<0.001). Conclusions RSVinfection is a significant cause ofmorbidity among children presenting with ALRI in southern India. In resource-limited settings, DFA can be used as an important tool for rapid detection of RSV and can potentially eliminate prolonged hospitalization and unnecessary use of antibiotics.