Studies of Acute Respiratory Illnesses Caused by Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Abstract

FIRST recovery of the respiratory syncytial or chimpanzee-coryza agent (CCA) was reported by Morris et al.1 in 1956. These workers isolated the virus from chimpanzees in an epidemic of acute respiratory illness and from a laboratory worker who was in contact with the animals. Chanock et al.,2 , 3 in 1957, described the recovery of two strains of the virus from infants with lower-respiratory-tract infection and demonstrated increases in antibody against the agent among patients with respiratory disease and controls. Three years later Rowe and Michaels4 discussed the positive laboratory diagnostic findings for this agent in an infant with pneumonia. The first . . .