Definition:
This virus causes infections in the lungs and respiratory tract. This virus commonly affects children by the age of 2 and even adults. Infection can severe especially when it infects premature babies and infants with underlying health conditions.
Diagnosis:
Skin monitoring which is painless to check if the oxygen level in the bloodstream is lower than normal.
Blood test or Complete blood count (CBC) to check for bacteria, viruses or other organisms.
Chest x-rays
Treatment:
Children who are affected in a mild manner are not given specific treatments but to treat the symptoms. In severe cases, treatment may require therapy such as oxygen therapy and sometimes mechanical ventilation. Other treatment for severe cases is the ribavirin aerosol. Some physicians have used a combination of high titers of neutralizing RSV antibody (RSV-IGIV) with immune globulin intravenous (IGIV) and ribavirin to treat patients whose immune systems are compromised.
Symptoms and Signs:
The known symptoms are fever, cough, runny nose, cough, wheezing or shortness of breath, pneumonia, bronchiolitis and cold-like symptoms.
Causes:
The most common cause is infection which is caused by the negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus that belongs to the family Paramyxoviridae that also includes common respiratory viruses like the ones that cause mumps and measles. The virus causing this infection may enter in the mouth, eyes or nose. The virus can also reside for hours in countertops and toys once the contaminated object is touched you are most likely to acquire the virus.
:
respiratorysyncytialvirus
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