Infecções respiratórias por vírus sincicial respiratório em criança de creche

Abstract

Respiratory infections account for more than 25% of the whole medical, pediatric, outpatient and hospital services. Around 90% of those infections are related with viral agents. RSV is an important agent identified in those diseases. This study aimed at assessing the frequency of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) in children aged from 0 to 6 years with upper respiratory infection diseases (URID) from a nursery school, and to associate the clinical and epidemic data of mild degree of URID with the viral agent. The children had a daily follow-up in the period from July 2003 to July 2004, and viral investigation for RSV by means of Polimerase Chain Reaction (PCR), in the children's nasopharyngeal secretions that presented signs of breathing infection. A total of 259 events of URID in 173 children have occurred. A hundred twenty-two (70.5%) children were over 2 years in the beginning of the follow-up and 94 (54.3%) were male. The monthly number of episodes ranged from 0 to 53. RSV was diagnosed in 27 (10.5%) samples, and it was more frequent between the months of July to September. The signs observed in the children with RSV infection were coryza in 26 (96.3%) episodes, nasal obstruction in 19 (70.4%), coughs in 15 (55.6%), wheezing in 3 (11.1%) and sneeze and fever in 2 (7.4%) episodes. Antibiotics were administered in 16 (6.2%) episodes of breathing infection. One (3.7%) infection episode by RSV received treatment with antibiotic. One (0.4%) serious episode had developed for hospitalization. A high frequency of RSV was observed among the children from nursery school with mild breathing infections, mainly from the beginning of the autumn to the spring; the most frequent signs in the infections for RSV were cough, coryza and nasal obstruction; there was association between nasal obstruction and infections by RSV.