Respiratory Syncytial Virus
Respiratory syncytial virus is the commonest cause of severe lower respiratory disease in children under the age of one (called bronchiolitis, described in the section on childhood) but it can affect all ages, causing lower respiratory tract infection (that part of the respiratory tract below the larynx), pneumonia, fever, muscular aches and pains and in vulnerable elderly people can cause death. Symptoms can be difficult to differentiate from those caused by the influenza virus: the treatment is the same, though there are as yet no effective vaccines or anti-viral treatments available.
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