Respiratory syncytial virus in young children

Abstract

Respiratory-tract infections remain the foremost cause of death in young children and are a major obstacle to achievement of Millennium Development Goal 4—to reduce under-5 mortality by two-thirds by 2015. 1 UNThe Millennium Development Goals report 2009. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG_Report_2009_ENG.pdfDate: 2009 Google Scholar , 2 Rudan I Boschi-Pinto C Biloglav Z Mulholland K Campbell H Epidemiology and etiology of childhood pneumonia. Bull World Health Organ. 2008; 86: 408-416 Crossref PubMed Scopus (923) Google Scholar , 3 Scott JAG Brooks WA Peiris JSM Holtzman D Mulhollan EK Pneumonia research to reduce childhood mortality in the developing world. J Clin Invest. 2008; 118: 1291-1300 Crossref PubMed Scopus (125) Google Scholar Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of acute lower respiratory-tract infections and admissions to hospital worldwide. It is the only agent of the three major organisms that causes death from respiratory-tract infections—RSV, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Haemophilus influenzae—for which no vaccine is available. 2 Rudan I Boschi-Pinto C Biloglav Z Mulholland K Campbell H Epidemiology and etiology of childhood pneumonia. Bull World Health Organ. 2008; 86: 408-416 Crossref PubMed Scopus (923) Google Scholar , 3 Scott JAG Brooks WA Peiris JSM Holtzman D Mulhollan EK Pneumonia research to reduce childhood mortality in the developing world. J Clin Invest. 2008; 118: 1291-1300 Crossref PubMed Scopus (125) Google Scholar RSV has been prioritised for control and vaccine development by global and national health organisations for more than 20 years. 4 National Institutes of HealthThe Jordan Report: 20th anniversary. Accelerated development of vaccines. http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/Malaria/PDF/jordan20_2002.pdfDate: 2002 Google Scholar , 5 Monto AS The prospects for immunizing against respiratory syncytial virus. in: Institute of Medicine Committee on Issues and Priorities for New Vaccine Development New vaccine development: establishing priorities—volume 2, diseases of importance in developing countries. National Academy Press, Washington1986: 299-308 Google Scholar Successful immunisation against RSV was predicted, in 1994, to be achieved within 10 years. 6 Murphy BR Hall SL Kulkarni AB et al. An update on approaches to the development of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and parainfluenza virus type 3 (PIV3) vaccines. Virus Res. 1994; 32: 13-36 Crossref PubMed Scopus (119) Google Scholar Global burden of acute lower respiratory infections due to respiratory syncytial virus in young children: a systematic review and meta-analysisGlobally, RSV is the most common cause of childhood ALRI and a major cause of admission to hospital as a result of severe ALRI. Mortality data suggest that RSV is an important cause of death in childhood from ALRI, after pneumococcal pneumonia and Haemophilus influenzae type b. The development of novel prevention and treatment strategies should be accelerated as a priority. Full-Text PDF