How contagious is the RS virus?
The RS virus has a high infectiousness. Because it is transmitted via droplets, it can spread quickly. In addition, the virus is highly resistant to environmental influences, which means that it can survive well outside of humans.
A patient with an RS virus infection is contagious for other people after only one day. Even in children and adults with an intact immune system, this contagiousness only subsides after 3-8 days. This means that even patients who hardly develop any symptoms in these first days of the disease are already contagious for their environment.
In infants, premature babies and immunocompromised adults, the period of infectiousness can be extended to weeks or months. They are then referred to as chronic carriers. In a certain number of cases, an infection of the RS virus can be fatal.
Children with risk factors such as previous lung diseases or congenital heart defects are particularly affected. Premature babies also belong to this group. Here the mortality rate is around three to four percent. Healthy children with a normal immune system have a mortality rate of less than one percent.
Diagnosis of RSV
Children and infants can be suspected of being infected with RS viruses on the basis of the typical symptoms. The RS virus can be detected in the laboratory by means of individual smears taken from the nose and throat. The pathogen can also be detected in the blood.With these methods, the pathogen can either be cultivated directly and thus detected or, alternatively, special surface structures (antigens) can be detected on the viruses and thus a diagnosis can be made.
Late effects of RS virus infection
About one third of children with an RS virus infection develop an acute middle ear infection. This can lead to damage in the ear canal and surrounding structures, especially if there is an additional bacterial infection. Therefore, treatment with antibiotics is essential to prevent hearing loss.
Furthermore, the respiratory tract may be more sensitive to external stimuli for a long time after the disease has healed. As a result, the airways contract even at the slightest stimulus and a feeling of breathlessness is perceived. This phenomenon can be observed up to ten years after infection.
During this long period, children also show a tendency to have asthmatic attacks, which subside with increasing age. It is also being discussed whether a RS virus infection that has already been experienced leads to increased allergy rates. Some studies could show that children with a healed infection showed a tendency to food allergies, among other things.
However, this has not yet been fully confirmed. Laboratory experiments have shown that the virus can enter the brain during the infection. Late damage can also occur there.
Thus, regions in the brain that are related to learning are injured. A possible late consequence could therefore be an impaired learning ability as well as disturbances in perception. In very severe cases, infection with the RS virus can lead to pneumonia.
Especially affected are patients with chronic heart or lung diseases, as well as all patients who are immunosuppressed. Here, the infection with the RS virus, which normally can be fought well by the immune system, can spread unstoppably and lead to severe disease progression. The symptoms do not differ significantly from the inflammation of the respiratory tract. Limb pain and headaches may be added as symptoms.
