Incidence of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection Among Young Children of Bandar Abbas, Southern Iran

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a lower respiratory tract infection in infants and children younger than five years old. This disease is an important factor for hospitalization during the winter months. To determine the percentage of RSV infection in infants younger than 60 months old in different seasons, the current study was performed during 12 months in 2014 in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran. Overall, 182 children aged less than five years with clinical symptoms of tachydyspnea, fever, cold/cough, sore throat, and aches (examined by one specialist pediatrician) were consecutively selected from inpatient or outdoor patients of the children’s hospital in Bandar Abbas, Iran. Children’s throat swabs were collected and RSV infection was detected by real time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In total, 57.14% of all children were male and 42.86% were female. Respiratory syncytial virus infection was found in 46 out of 182 patients (25.3%). Among the 46 children with RSV infection, 22 patients (47.83%) were male and 24 patients (52.17%) were female with no significant difference between males and females. Most RSV infections were found in infants younger than 36 months old. There were significant differences between RSV positivity in winter and summer as 86.96% of positive RSV was during winter and 13.04% was during summer. This study indicates that RSV is an important cause of respiratory tract infection in winter time in infants less than 36 months old in Bandar Abbas.