Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections in the pediatric teaching hospital Charles de Gaulle of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso]

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections are little known in Burkina Faso. The objective of our work is to study the epidemiological and clinical aspects of RSV infections in infants in the Pediatric Teaching Hospital Charles de Gaulle of Ouagadougou. Between July 1(st) 2010 and June 30(th) 2011, we analyzed by direct immunofluorescence and PCR nasopharyngeal swabs from children from 0 to 36 months old. All in all, 210 patients among whom 74 from the external consultation (35.2%) and 136 hospitalized (64.7%) benefited from a nasopharyngeal aspiration. The motives for consultation were cough (91.7%), rhinitis (79.2%), fever (79.2%) and respiratory distress syndrome (66.7%). The evoked diagnoses were predominantly the acute bronchiolitis in 14 cases (58.3%) followed by the acute pulmonary disease in 7 patients (26.2%) then flue in 1 patient (16.7%). We detected by direct immunofluorescence the antigens of the respiratory viruses in 21 nasopharyngeal aspirations with 10 cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections (47.6%). The PCR realized on 208 samples allowed to identify 153 positive samples (73.2%) with 24 RSV, i.e. a global prevalence of 16.1% with a peak of 18 cases (75%). In October, all the patients benefited from an often multiple antibiotic treatment of at least 10 days which was not still necessary. The evolution was favorable for all patients. This study confirms the important place of the viruses which are detected in 70% of the cases. The PCR multiplex, certainly expensive but effective and successful, deserves to be used in our developing countries to avoid the irrational prescription of antibiotic.