Current Trends Update: Respiratory Virus Surveillance --
United States, 1984
Reports of noninfluenza respiratory viruses identified by
certain
state and university laboratories and received by CDC through
February
14, 1984, show that respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has now been
reported from all regions of the United States since December 1983
(Table 7). The rate of RSV identification remains high in most
regions. The Mountain region reported the largest number of RSV
identifications; 200 of 597 respiratory specimens tested during
January and February were positive for RSV. No RSV isolates were
reported in January or February in the East South Central region.
With the addition of data from several university laboratories in
the
East North Central and West North Central regions, it appears that
RSV
was present in these regions in December, as it was in the rest of
the
United States.
Reported by LL Minnich, MS, CG Ray, MD, Arizona Health Science
Center,
Tucson; B Lauer, MD, M Levin, MD, University of Colorado Health
Sciences Center, Denver; C Brandt, PhD, HW Kim, MD, Children's
Hospital National Medical Center, District of Columbia; L Pierik, K
McIntosh, MD, The Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; T
O'Leary, MPH, TC Shope, MD, University of Michigan Medical Center,
Ann
Arbor; HH Balfour, MD, University of Minnesota Hospitals,
Minneapolis;
GA Storch, MD, St. Louis Children's Hospital, Missouri; ME Kumar,
MD,
Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, Ohio; P Swenson, PhD,
North
Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, CB Hall, MD, University of
Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York; H Friedman, MD, S
Plotkin, MD, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
M
Kervina, MS, E Sannella, MS, PF Wright, MD, Vanderbilt University
School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee; L Corey, MD, Children's
Orthopedic Hospital, Seattle, Washington; Respective State Virus
Laboratory Directors; Div of Viral Diseases, Center for Infectious
Diseases, CDC.
Editorial Note
Editorial Note: The respiratory virus surveillance system
demonstrates temporal and geographic patterns of noninfluenza
respiratory viruses identified in the United States. These data
indicate which viruses are circulating in a community but do not
measure rates of illness or morbidity or mortality. Variability in
the number of specimens tested, source and methods of specimen
collection, and isolation and identification methods make it
impossible to compare data among regions. Surveillance has
demonstrated a nationwide occurrence of RSV this season, with onset
at
approximately the same time in all regions of the country. The
reason
for the absence of reported RSV in the East South Central region,
despite its presence in all other regions in January and February,
is
unclear.
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