Epidemiological and clinical evaluation of children with respiratory virus infections

Shatizadeh, Somayeh; Yavarian, Jila; Rezaie, Farhad; Mahmoodi, Mahmood; Naseri, Maryam; Mokhtari Azad, Talat

The circulation of different respiratory viruses during the same period of the year makes it very difficult to detect their individual contribution to the global respiratory disease. Moreover, the pattern of the respiratory virus activity seems to change within the different age groups with different demographic characteristics (13) . In each community, the epidemiology of respiratory viruses has to be determined prior to the implementation of novel and costly therapies. In the present study RSV was the most frequently demonstrated virus accounted for 16.8% of all viruses detected. Our results were similar to those from other countries (14,15) and emphasize the role of RSV as the leading cause of ARTI in infants and young children. Meanwhile RSV was mostly found in female infants less than one year of age with the typical seasonal pattern with a peak incidence during February (16) . Fever, cough and myalgia were the common clinical signs and symptoms in these patients. One study in the united states showed RSV is responsible for 1% child hospitalization, 70% of which during the first year of life (17).