Respiratory syncytial virus infection: a cause of respiratory distress syndrome and pneumonia in adults

Abstract

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection, an important and sometimes lethal disease of infants and children, generally causes a milder and self-limited syndrome of cough, nasal congestion and fever in adults. While some evidence suggests that RSV may be responsible for more serious respiratory illness in the elderly and chronically ill, it has not been shown to cause life-threatening respiratory tract disease in previously healthy adults. This report describes a previously healthy woman who experienced the acute onset of right lower lobe pneumonia which rapidly progressed to the adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Acute and convalescent serology showed RSV was the cause of the respiratory tract illness. Michigan Department of Public Health records revealed six additional cases of adult bilateral pneumonia with diagnostic antibody titers to RSV, with or without coinfection with a second organism. These data suggest that RSV may be an under-recognized cause of lower respiratory tract disease in adults.