Abstract
Heterogeneity in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease severity likely is due to a combination of host and viral factors. Infection with RSV subgroup A is thought to produce more severe disease than RSV-B. Higher RSV loads correlate with greater disease severity in hospitalized infants. Whether subgroup-specific variations in disease severity result from differences in RSV load has not been studied. A total of 102 RSV-hospitalized infants <2 y of age were studied. Nasal washes were collected in a standardized manner and were cultured in <3 h in parallel with an RSV quantitative standard in a HEp-2 plaque assay. RSV-A (72%) was more frequent than RSV-B. Disease severity risk factors were similar between subgroups. RSV loads were similar between A and B subgroups (4.77 versus 4.68 log PFU/mL). Measures of disease severity were also similar between subgroups.
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Abbreviations
- RSV:
-
respiratory syncytial virus
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks Drs. Elaine Tuomanen and Malak Kotb for guidance and is grateful for the indispensable assistance of Lisa Harrison and Jody Aitken in collection of the data presented. The author also appreciates the assistance of the staff of the Le Bonheur Virology Lab and the physicians, the parents, and the infants who participated in this study.
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This research was funded in part by the following grants awarded to J.D.: National Institutes of Health RR16187, Children's Foundation Research Center, and the General Clinical Research Center UHPHS RR00211.
This information was presented in part as Abstract 658 at the 41st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy; Chicago, IL; December 2001.
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Devincenzo, J. Natural Infection of Infants with Respiratory Syncytial Virus Subgroups A and B: A Study of Frequency, Disease Severity, and Viral Load. Pediatr Res 56, 914–917 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1203/01.PDR.0000145255.86117.6A
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/01.PDR.0000145255.86117.6A
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