A Survey of Antibodies to Respiratory Syncytial Virus in the Population

Abstract

Examination of 329 samples of serum from all age-groups was made to detect antibodies to the respiratory syncytial virus. At the age of 5 years, and in all older age-groups, over 66% of the sera contained both neutralizing and complement-fixing antibodies. The lowest incidence of antibodies was in the 6 months to 1-year age-group. A high incidence of infection with respiratory syncytial virus in the population was indicated by the finding of neutralizing antibody in 93% of sera from persons over 15 years of age. © 1964, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.