Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffSigns and symptoms of respiratory syncytial virus infection typically appear about four to six days after exposure to the virus. In adults and older children, RSV usually causes mild cold-like signs and symptoms. These include:
- Congested or runny nose
- Dry cough
- Low-grade fever
- Sore throat
- Mild headache
- A general feeling of unease and discomfort (malaise)
In severe cases
Respiratory syncytial virus can lead to a lower respiratory tract illness such as pneumonia or bronchiolitis — an inflammation of the small airway passages entering the lungs. Signs and symptoms may include:
- High fever
- Severe cough
- Wheezing — a high-pitched noise that's usually heard on breathing out (exhaling)
- Rapid breathing or difficulty breathing, which may make the child prefer to sit up rather than lie down
- Bluish color of the skin due to lack of oxygen (cyanosis)
Infants are most severely affected by RSV. They may markedly draw in their chest muscles and the skin between their ribs, indicating that they're having trouble breathing, and their breathing may be short, shallow and rapid. They may cough. Or they may show few, if any, signs of a respiratory tract infection, but will eat poorly and be unusually lethargic and irritable.
Most children and adults recover from the illness in eight to 15 days. But in young babies, infants born prematurely, or infants or adults who have chronic heart or lung problems, the virus may cause a more severe — occasionally life-threatening — infection that requires hospitalization.
When to see a doctor
Most cases of respiratory syncytial virus infection aren't life-threatening. Still, seek medical advice for a child, older adult or other person at high risk who experiences any of its signs and symptoms.
Seek immediate medical attention if your child experiences difficulty breathing, runs a high fever or turns blue in color.
- American Academy of Pediatrics. Respiratory syncytial virus. In: Pickering LK, et al. Red Book: 2006 Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases. 27th ed. Elk Grove, Ill.: American Academy of Pediatrics; 2006. http://aapredbook.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/2006/1/3.107. Accessed June 9, 2009.
- Barr FE, et al. Clinical features and diagnosis of respiratory syncytial virus infection. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed May 15, 2009.
- Peters TR, et al. Respiratory syncytial virus. In: Long SS, et al. Principles and Practices of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Churchill Livingstone; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/143546809-2/0/1679/229.html?tocnode=55244158&fromURL=229.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-443-06687-0..50228-9_4167. Accessed June 10, 2009.
- Respiratory syncytial virus infection (RSV): Infection and incidence. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/rsv/about/infection.html. Accessed June 10, 2009.
- Busselen S. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). In: Ferri FF. Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2009. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2009. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/143685797-2/0/1701/508.html?tocnode=56571976&fromURL=508.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-323-04134-8..50021-5--subchapter11_10747. Accessed June 10, 2009.
- Respiratory syncytial virus infection (RSV): Transmission and prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/rsv/about/transmission.html. Accessed June 10, 2009.
- Perez-Yarza EG, et al. The association between respiratory syncytial virus infection and the development of childhood asthma: A systematic review of the literature. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. 2007;26:733.
- Barr FE, et al. Treatment and prevention of respiratory syncytial virus infection. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed May 18, 2009.
- Ventre K, et al. Ribavirin for respiratory syncytial virus infection of the lower respiratory tract in infants and young children. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2007:CD000181.
