title: [Observation over three seasons of respiratory syncytial virus infection in a geriatric health service facility].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize the impact of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection on respiratory illness in a geriatric health service facility.
  
  
  METHODS
  All facility residents were observed for respiratory symptoms from January 2010 to March 2012. The presence of an RSV antigen was examined in selected patients using rapid antigen test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  I observed one outbreak of RSV and four outbreaks of respiratory infection without RSV. I also observed two cases of sporadic RSV infection, one of which had pneumonia. An RSV outbreak in the facility was observed only when RSV cases from pediatricians were four times more frequently reported than the usual seasonal average. More patients with severe respiratory illness were observed during an RSV outbreak than during other outbreaks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  RSV can cause severe respiratory illness in elderly patients. Repeated invasion from surrounding infectious environments may be essential for an RSV outbreak to occur. Moreover, although the sensitivity of rapid RSV antigen tests may have influenced the results of the current study, such sensitivity in elderly patients is reportedly diverse in the literature, and the reasons for such variation have not yet been elucidated. We postulate that a reason for such variation is a viral co-infection, in particular of the bocavirus, which has a reported high incidence of co-infection and which affects viral shedding. Furthermore, human metapneumovirus has been reported to influence the severity of RSV infection. Most of these knowledges concerning the influence of co-infection were obtained from pediatric studies, therefore we need further investigations targetting elderly patients.
authors: Geriatric Health Service Facility Tanpopo.
authors: Hidehisa
authors: H
authors: Kohno
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D018357:Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology