Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of lung infection in children and can lead to pneumonia or bronchiolitis, which is especially dangerous for young children.

The Daily Mail reported that a potentially fatal winter virus is attacking children in Australia, with cases in New South Wales increasing tenfold in just three weeks. Moreover, there is no vaccine for this virus

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of lung infection in children and can lead to pneumonia or bronchiolitis, which is especially dangerous for young children.

Globally, the disease kills about 120,000 children under the age of five each year. The number of confirmed cases in New South Wales has soared from 355 to 3,775 just in three weeks. In these cases, about one-fifth of them developed a potentially fatal bronchiolitis, and 40 percent of them were severe enough to require hospitalization. The triple whammy of respiratory syncytial virus, flu and COVID-19 has overwhelmed the emergency room at Sydney Children’s Hospital, says the infectious disease researcher Dr John-sebastian Eden.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the RSV virus spread, mutated and split into two separate strains in eastern and western Australia because of the lockdowns. The symptoms may be almost identical to those of flu and COVID-19, but people with RSV tend not to have a fever. And unlike COVID-19 and flu, there is no vaccine for RSV and it can cause serious aftereffects such as chronic asthma and wheezing. Although children under 3 years of age are at highest risk of respiratory syncytial virus infection, the virus can also cause severe illness in adults, especially the elderly.

About RSV

•  RSV is normally a winter disease but Covid lockdowns saw an unexpected huge surge in summer cases last year.

•  Symptoms include a runny nose, cough, reduced feeding and fever. Complications include wheezing and difficulty breathing, which can develop into pneumonia.

•  Like Covid, it can be transferred by sneezing and coughing, but unlike Covid, young children are particularly affected by it.

•  Almost all children have had an RSV infection by the age of two, but infants in their first year of life are more likely to experience severe infections requiring hospitalisation, because their airways are smaller. Babies have also not built up immunity to RSV from previous years.

•  There is no vaccine for RSV but several are under development.

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Product Recommendation

Rapid test is an effective method to identify respiratory syncytial virus, which can be used to identify community cases early and refer sick children (especially children with low peripheral oxygen saturation) to hospital, so as to block and reduce community transmission as soon as possible.