Isolation and Characterization of Clinical RSV Isolates in Belgium during the Winters of 2016–2018

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a very important viral pathogen in children, immunocompromised and cardiopulmonary diseased patients and the elderly. Most of the published research with RSV was performed on RSV Long and RSV A2, isolated in 1956 and 1961, yet recent RSV isolates differ from these prototype strains. Additionally, these viruses have been serially passaged in cell culture, which may result in adaptations that affect virus−host interactions. We have isolated RSV from mucosal secretions of 12 patients in the winters 2016−2017 and 2017−2018, of which eight RSV-A subtypes and fou... Mehr ...