[Respiratory syncytial virus in hospitalized children. A 3-year study].
OBJECTIVE
To assess the prevalence of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other important respiratory viruses in children hospitalized in a pediatric hospital in Paris (France) during a 3-year period (2001 to 2004).


METHODS
The study included all patients aged 8 days to 16 years admitted from the community through emergency department with bronchiolitis, pneumonia, upper respiratory tract infection, asthma or acute isolated fever and who had nasopharyngeal samples taken for viral identification by immunofluorescence (RSV, influenza, para-influenza, and adenoviruses).


RESULTS
A virus was found in 464 of 1208 patients with samples taken. RSV was identified in 375 patients, 74% of them younger than 6 months and diagnosed with bronchiolitis. RSV was isolated more often than any other virus, overall and for all diagnoses except "isolated fever," for which influenza was more frequent. In patients aged 24 months or older, influenza and RSV were identified at the same frequency. Overall, influenza virus was found in 53 patients, adenoviruses in 24 and para-influenza viruses in 11.


CONCLUSIONS
RSV was the respiratory virus isolated most often, even in older children, during this 3-year study. The relative rarity of hospitalizations due to para-influenza viruses is characteristic of this area, compared with some other countries.
Services de pédiatrie et d'accueil des urgences, Faculté de médecine Paris V, Hôpital Saint-Vincent-de-Paul-Cochin, F-75014 Paris, France.
Marie-Joëlle
MJ
El-Hajje
Florence
F
Moulin
Nathalie
N
de Suremain
Elizabeth
E
Marc
Cécile
C
Cosnes-Lambe
Charlotte
C
Pons-Catalano
Mathie
M
Lorrot
Martin
M
Chalumeau
Flore
F
Rozenberg
Josette
J
Raymond
Pierre
P
Lebon
Dominique
D
Gendrel
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D018357:Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013997:Time Factors