7 research outputs found
Prevalence and clinical aspects of respiratory syncytial virus A and B groups in children seen at Hospital de Clínicas of Uberlândia, MG, Brazil
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is well recognized as the most
important pathogen causing acute respiratory disease in infants and
young children, mainly in the form of bronchiolitis and pneumonia. Two
major antigenic groups, A and B, have been identified; however, there
is disagreement about the severity of the diseases caused by these two
types. This study investigated a possible association between RSV
groups and severity of disease. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain
reaction was used to characterize 128 RSV nasopharyngeal specimens from
children less than five years old experiencing acute respiratory
disease. A total of 82 of 128 samples (64.1%) could be typed, and, of
these, 78% were group A, and 22% were group B. Severity was measured by
clinical evaluation associated with demographic factors: for RSV
A-infected patients, 53.1% were hospitalized, whereas for RSV B
patients, 27.8% were hospitalized (p = 0.07). Around 35.0% of the
patients presented risk factors for severity (e.g., prematurity). For
those without risk factors, the hospitalization occurred in 47.6% of
patients infected with RSV A and in 18.2% infected with RSV B. There
was a trend for RSV B infections to be milder than those of RSV A. Even
though RSV A-infected patients, including cases without underlying
condition and prematurity, were more likely to require hospitalization
than those infected by RSV B, the disease severity could not to be
attributed to the RSV groups