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Author: Carrie Morantz, Brian Torrey
Date: Sept 15, 2002
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis is the leading cause of hospitalization for infants under the age of one year, according to the study "Respiratory Syncytial Virus-coded Pediatric Hospitalizations, 1997 to 1999." The study appears in the July 2002 issue of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
The study is based on National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) data from 1997 to 1999, from the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the true number of hospitalizations cannot be ascertained from available databases.
The study is the first to conclude that RSV causes the most infant hospitalizations in the United States. A number of studies have already documented that RSV is the most common cause of lower respiratory-tract infections in infants, and that premature infants and children with chronic lung disease are known to face a higher risk of hospitalization with RSV.
An estimated 280,730 infants younger than 12 months were identified as having a primary or secondary diagnosis of RSV between 1997 and 1999. This equals an incidence rate of 23.7 per 1,000 U.S. infants. RSV was the primary diagnosis in almost 260,000 of these cases.
The average hospital stay is 6.4 days for infants with RSV pneumonia and 3.5 days for infants with RSV bronchiolitis.
COPYRIGHT 2002 American Academy of Family PhysiciansCOPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group