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• Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of severe lower respiratory infection among infants and young children.
• Symptoms of illness include fever, runny nose, cough and wheezing. When children are first infected with RSV, 25-40% of them will have symptoms of bronchiolitis or pneumonia and up to 2% of children will require hospitalization.
• In addition to infants who are premature, low birth weight, or with congenital or chronic cardiopulmonary disease, most susceptible are infants from 2 to 4 months when maternal antibodies drop off. By the second year of life, about 90% of children will have been exposed to RSV.
• No vaccine or effective therapy is available for RSV. Infants and children at risk for severe RSV infection can receive immune prophylaxis with monthly doses of a humanized murine anti-RSV monoclonal antibody during the RSV season.