For most people, RSV produces only mild symptoms, often indistinguishable from common colds and minor illnesses.

The Centers for Disease Control consider RSV to be the “most common cause of bronchiolitis (inflammation of the small airways in the lung) and pneumonia in children under 1 year of age in the United States.”^[1]

Other RSV symptoms common among infants include:

• Listlessness
• Poor or diminished appetite
• Possible fever^[2]

Recurrent wheezing and asthma are more common among individuals who suffered severe RSV infection during the first few months of life than among controls;^[3] whether RSV infection sets up a process that leads to recurrent wheezing or whether those already predisposed to asthma are more likely to become severely ill with RSV has yet to be determined.

Symptoms of pneumonia in immuno-compromised patients such as in transplant patients and especially bone marrow transplant patients should be evaluated to rule out RSV infection. This can be done by means of PCR testing for RSV nucleic acids in peripheral blood samples if all other infectious processes have been ruled out or if it is highly suspicious for RSV such as a recent exposure to a known source of RSV infection.