RSV Can Be a Killer. New Tools Are Identifying the Most At-Risk Kids

After 25 years as a pediatric infectious diseases specialist, Asunción Mejías is too familiar with the deadly unpredictability of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), an infection that hospitalizes up to 80,000 children under the age of 5 every year in the US. "It's a disease which can change very quickly," says Mejías, who works at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. "I've always told my colleagues that for every two children that are admitted, one can go to the ICU in the next three hours and the other one may go home the next day. RSV infections are very common, to the point that nearly every child will have one before they turn 2 years old. Most children experience symptoms similar to a cold, like coughing and sneezing, but some can develop severe lung disease: RSV is responsible for more than 100,000 infant deaths globally every year, nearly half of which are in babies under 6 months of age.