Respiratory Syncytial Virus:
Lower respiratory infection attributable to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was responsible for more than 1,00,000 deaths in children under five worldwide in 2019, according to a new estimate published in The Lancet
- The study is the first to examine RSV disease burden in narrow age brackets.
- According to the report the incidence rate in India is 53 per 1,000 children per year (5.3%) and there were an approximate 61,86, 500 episodes of RSV-associated acute lower respiratory infection in children below five years.
- Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is also called human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) and human orthopneumovirus.
- It is a common, contagious virus that causes infections of the respiratory tract.
- It is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus, and its name is derived from the large cells known as syncytia that form when infected cells fuse.
- RSV is the most common cause of acute lower respiratory infection in young children.
- Globally, only 26% RSV-associated deaths occur in a hospital. This is particularly apparent in low- and middle-income countries.
