Respiratory Syncytial Virus Outbreak in the Basic Military Training Camp of the Republic of Korea Air Force.
- Author:
Won Ju PARK
1
;
Seok Ju YOO
;
Suk Ho LEE
;
Jae Woo CHUNG
;
Keun Ho JANG
;
Jai Dong MOON
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- Keywords: Disease outbreaks; Fever; Military facilities; Military personnel; Respiratory syncytial virus infections
- MeSH: Adolescent; Adult; Antiviral Agents/therapeutic use; Body Temperature; Disease Outbreaks; Humans; Male; Military Personnel; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction; Oseltamivir/therapeutic use; Pharynx/virology; RNA, Viral/chemistry/genetics/metabolism; Republic of Korea/epidemiology; Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections/drug therapy/*epidemiology/virology; Respiratory Syncytial Viruses/*genetics/isolation & purification; Sputum/virology; Young Adult
- From:Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health 2015;48(1):10-17
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: OBJECTIVES: An outbreak of acute febrile illness occurred in the Republic of Korea Air Force boot camp from May to July 2011. An epidemiological investigation of the causative agent, which was of a highly infective nature, was conducted. METHODS: Throat swabs were carried out and a multiplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay was performed to identify possible causative factors. RESULTS: The mean age of patients who had febrile illness during the study period was 20.24 years. The multiplex RT-PCR assay identified respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) as the causative agent. The main symptoms were sore throat (76.0%), sputum (72.8%), cough (72.1%), tonsillar hypertrophy (67.9%), and rhinorrhea (55.9%). The mean temperature was 38.75degreesC and the attack rate among the recruits was 15.7% (588 out of 3750 recruits), while the mean duration of fever was 2.3 days. The prognosis was generally favorable with supportive care but recurrent fever occurred in 10.1% of the patients within a month. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first epidemiological study of an RSV outbreak that developed in a healthy young adult group. In the event of an outbreak of an acute febrile illness of a highly infective nature in facilities used by a young adult group, RSV should be considered among the possible causative agents.
