title: Molecular and clinical characteristics of respiratory syncytial virus infections in hospitalized children.
abstract: The objective of this study was to determine the importance of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) for hospitalization in the north east of Germany and to obtain molecular epidemiological data of the circulating strains. Using a rapid and sensitive reverse transcriptase-PCR, it was found that a quarter of pediatric respiratory disease admissions were due to RSV. Infections caused by RSV in hospitalized patients were determined over the whole year. Both RSV groups A and B were identified with a predominance of RSV A (86%) over the entire period. The analysis of the deduced amino acid sequences by direct sequencing showed that very similar RSV strains are circulating in the community.
authors.affiliation: Friedrich Loeffler Institute of Medical Microbiology, Greifswald, Germany. Renate.Mentel@mail.uni-greifswald.de
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mentel
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ilgert
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Wegner
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bruns
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gürtler
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D018357:Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018113:Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Human / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012720:Severity of Illness Index