[Epidemiology of respiratory syncytial virus infections in the Canary Islands].

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the major cause of lower respiratory tract infection in young children. Outbreaks of RSV infection occur yearly during the winter or spring in temperate climates. Our study of 634 hospitalized children under 3 years of age with bronchiolitis and pneumonia (November 1988 to January 1990) revealed that 227 (35.8%) had VRS infections. These cases showed a yearly epidemic pattern with 86.8% of the cases occurring during the winter. Furthermore, 67.4% of the cases occurred in children between 1-6 months of age and the boy/girl ration was 1.2/1. In 26.9% of the infections there was an antibody response. These results for RSV infection on this island show the same epidemiological pattern as that in the temperate climates.