Research on epidemiological features of respiratory syncytial virus in children

ZHANG Xue-lan; JI Zheng-hua; DING Yun-fang; JI Wei; YAN Yong-dong; ZHU Hong

Abstract：Objective To investigate the epidemiological trend of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children with acute respiratory infection in Suzhou during the recent six years. Methods Totally 18 958 children with acute respira- , tory tract infection from January, 2001 to March, 2008 were enrolled in the study. Nasopharyngeal aspirates were obtained from the respiratory tract by aseptic vacuum aspiration. Direct immuno-fluorescence assay was employed to detect RSV antigen.Corretation analysis for RSV positive rate during seven seasons and their mean air temperature was performed using partial correlation. Results The positive rates for RSV detection were 40.75% , 40.53% , 41.35% and38.57% in the seasons of 2001-2002, 2003～2004, 2005-2006, 2007 - 2008, which were higher than those in seasons of 2002-2003 (22.67%), 2004-2005 (26.38%) and 2006-2007(20.72%) . There was no correlationship between the positive rate and the mean air temperature during these seasons (r = -0.290,P > 0.05) . Conclusion The study indicates that RSV is an important etiological agent for acute lower respiratory infections in infants and young children in winter and spring in Suzhou area. The pattern of RSV circulation varied alternately with higher rate every other year. This trend has no correlationship with the mean air temperature.