Abstract
Beginning in July 1966, 424 children ranging from 6 months to 7 years of age were immunized. Mild RSV illness was documented to occur later upon natural exposure to the wild virus in all age groups. Nineteen children in the youngest age group immunized (6–23 mos) were hospitalized with an atypical illness due to RSV. Eleven were hospitalized in 1966–67, 6 in 1967–68, and 2 in 1968–69. Two children had recurrent atypical illness during separate years. The illness was characterized by high fever adn pneumonia with marked bronchiolitic wheezing. Chest films showed prominent multi-segmental infiltrates usually in several lobes. Associated lung complications included: lobar atelectasis, pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum, pneumopericardium, subcutaneous emphysema, and pleural effusions. A diffuse maculopapular rash was present on the neck, trunk and proximal extremitities of 8 (42%) vaccinees in contrast to 1 of 31 (3.2%) control with hospitalized RSV illness (X2 = 9.57, p < 0.01). Of 9 hospitalized vaccinees avilable for prosepective follow-up for 4 years from the time of immunization, 5 (55.6%) were diagnosed by allergists, independently of the investigators, as having either asthma (4) or allergic rhinitis (1). This was in contrast to a diagnosis of an atopic disorder made in 7 of 46 (15.2%) age-matched controls prespectively followed (X2 = 5.01, p < 0.10).
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Eller, J., Fulginiti, V., Plunket, D. et al. Altered reactivity to respiratory syncytial virus: Description of atypical RSV illness and prospective four year follow-up of children previously immunized with an inactivated vaccine. Pediatr Res 5, 402 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197108000-00129
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197108000-00129