The role of respiratory syncytial virus in otitis media in children.

Abstract

Thirty-three children with acute respiratory infection and intratympanic mucus or fluid accumulation were studied during a respiratory syncytial (RS) virus outbreak. Throat swabs and middle ear aspirates were cultured for virus using a direct inoculation technique. RS virus was recovered from the throat swabs of 18, from one or both ears of 7 of these virus-positive subjects, and with about equal frequency from ears showing signs of slight inflammation and ears with injected, reddened and/ or bulging eardrums. It was recovered from two aspirates obtained at subsequent punctures from the same ear, from aspirates also yielding a bacterial pathogen, and from the aspirate of a subject no younger than 3 years old. None of the children with virus-neagtive throat swabs showed virus in their aspirates. “Within this group there was a strikingly high number of subjects displaying evidence of recent RS virus infection (CF antibodies to a high titer in the acute serum). The origin of the mucus, the clinical significa...