In The News: Children With Health Care-Associated RSV More Likely to Need Respiratory Support

Healio reports on a respiratory syncytial virus study recently published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. Researchers found that children with health care-associated RSV were more likely (up to five times as likely) to need respiratory support than children with community-associated RSV.

The prospective cohort study included 26 children with hospital-acquire RSV who were hospitalized between October 2020 and April 2022. The control group included 78 children hospitalized with non-HA-RSV. No patients with HA-RSV died during hospitalization, yet two patients from the control died.

Most children, whether in the study group or control group, had two or more comorbid conditions (57.7% and 55.2%, respectively). Those in the study group were more likely to have cardiovascular comorbidities but less likely to have respiratory comorbidities. With this, researchers found that those with HA-RSV were three times more likely to need respiratory support compared to the control, even when researchers adjusted for comorbidities.

Additionally, five patients with HA-RSV also tested positive for adenovirus, human metapneumovirus, influenza A H3 or rhinovirus/enterovirus. Three patients in the HA-RSV group tested positive for pathogens in their blood, while the control group had no positive blood cultures. Zero patients had positive respiratory cultures.

Researchers noted HA-RSV infection as an independent factor associated with escalation of respiratory support. They recommended strategies are needed to reduce HA respiratory viral infections and other respiratory viral pathogens

PIDS member and study author, Lisa Saiman, is quoted, “Health care-associated respiratory syncytial virus (HA-RSV) infection is associated with morbidity and occasional mortality, especially in children with chronic conditions. However, our understanding of adverse outcomes associated with HA-RSV infections has been limited due to the lack of a control group [with] which to compare outcomes. Thus, we compared risk factors and outcomes in children with HA-RSV infections vs. hospitalized children without HA-RSV infections.”