title: Respiratory syncytial virus is not an important community acquired pathogen in adult hematological malignancy patients.
abstract: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has been reported as a leading cause of upper and lower viral respiratory tract infection in high-risk adult populations. We prospectively studied 48 patients with hematological malignancies over a period of 2 years. Throat and nasal washings were subjected to immunofluorescence and cell culture for virus isolation. Of these 48 patients, 31 had acute leukemia, 6 had chronic leukemia, 10 had lymphoma and one had multiple myeloma. The median age of the patients was 20 years with a male to female ratio of 4:1. No RSV was detected in any of the samples. RSV was not found as a major cause of community acquired upper respiratory tract infections in adults with hematological malignancies in India.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: Baijayantimala
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Malhotra
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mandall
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Ratho
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Varma
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018357:Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D018113:Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Human / Q000302:isolation & purification*