Respiratory syncytial virus or RSV appears to be responsible for as many visits to doctors each year as influenza and causes three times as many hospitalizations among children, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

 

RSV is a major cause of respiratory illness in young children, causing infection of the lungs and breathing passages, but it can also lead to other more serious illnesses in premature babies and kids with diseases that affect the lungs, heart or immune system.

Almost all kids are infected with RSV at least once by the time they are 2 years old. People can protect themselves and their children against the infection by washing their hands frequently.

 

According to the new study made by Caroline Breese Hall, MD, of the University of Rochester Medical Center and colleagues, RSV sends 2.1 million children under age 5 to the doctor or hospital every year.

 

The study involved 5,067 children under age 5 who were hospitalized or treated in emergency departments or doctors’ offices for respiratory infections during several winter RSV seasons.

 

The study found that RSV is the cause of one in every 13 outpatient visits to physicians each year by children under age 5, and one in 38 emergency department visits.

 

“RSV infection is associated with substantial morbidity in U.S. children in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Most children with RSV infection were previously healthy, suggesting that control strategies targeting only high-risk children will have a limited effect on the total disease burden of RSV infection,” the authors of the study added.

 

The study was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention