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Review
. 2014 Apr 25:6:217-25.
doi: 10.2147/CEOR.S60710. eCollection 2014.

Respiratory syncytial virus: current and emerging treatment options

Tiffany L Turner  1 , Benjamin T Kopp  1 , Grace Paul  1 , Lindsay C Landgrave  2 , Don Hayes Jr  1 , Rohan Thompson  1
Affiliations
Review

Respiratory syncytial virus: current and emerging treatment options

Tiffany L Turner et al. Clinicoecon Outcomes Res. .

Abstract

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an important respiratory pathogen in infants and children worldwide. Although RSV typically causes mild upper respiratory infections, it frequently causes severe morbidity and mortality, especially in premature infants and children with other chronic diseases. Treatment of RSV is limited by a lack of effective antiviral treatments; however, ribavirin has been used in complicated cases, along with the addition of intravenous immune globulin in specific patients. Vaccination strategies for RSV prevention are heavily studied, but only palivizumab (Synagis(®)) has been approved for use in the United States in very select patient populations. Research is ongoing in developing additional vaccines, along with alternative therapies that may help prevent or decrease the severity of RSV infections in infants and children. To date, we have not seen a decrement in RSV morbidity and mortality with our current options; therefore, there is a clear need for novel RSV preventative and therapeutic strategies. In this review, we discuss the current and evolving trends in RSV treatment for infants and children.

Keywords: bronchiolitis; lower respiratory tract infection; probiotics; respiratory syncytial virus; vitamin D.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
RSV causing syncytia formation. Notes: Green indicates RSV infecting pediatric bronchial epithelial cells; blue indicates nuclei; arrows indicate syncytial formation. Reproduced from Villenave R, Thavagnanam S, Sarlang S, et al. In vitro modeling of respiratory syncytial virus infection of pediatric bronchial epithelium, the primary target of infection in vivo. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2012;109(13):5040–5045. Abbreviation: RSV, respiratory syncytial virus.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Weekly average laboratory test results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected on a voluntary basis. Note: Reprinted with permission from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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