THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HUMAN RESPIRATORY SYNCYTIAL VIRUS (HRSV) IN CHILDREN FROM GHANA WITH ACUTE LOWER RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTION: A MOLECULAR EPIDEMIOLOGY ANALYSIS.

Obodai E, Odoom JK, Adiku T, Goka B, Wolff T, Biere B, Schweiger B, Reiche J.

Summary: The molecular epidemiology of RSV infection is increasingly thought to be essential to understand how the virus spreads around the world every year. RSV molecular epidemiology also informs developers of therapeutics about potential sensitivity or resistance of the virus to specific drugs. Altogether, data of about 1000 specimens have been published, most from developed countries. The World Health Organization has started a pilot to perform RSV surveillance, probably including viral sequencing. Data from poor resource settings have been prioritized. To that end it is important to note this paper form researchers from Ghana and Germany who were able to provide valuable sequence data from a study performed in 2006-2014 in which 127 RSV positive children were included. The results show the evaluation of RSV-A (ON1) and RSV-B strains (BA9) in Ghana. These data will add significantly to our understanding of viral behavior over time in low and middle income countries (LMIC)

Paper of the month november 2018