Respiratory syncytial virus and influenza. Practical community surveillance.

Concurrent and sequential outbreaks of infection with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza A virus were studied, utilizing a local surveillance system for infectious diseases that involved weekly reports from primary care physicians. The patterns of illness in the community and in hospital admissions were relatively specific for these two viruses, and differed according to whether RSV and influenza A virus occurred together or separately. This surveillance system appeared to be a practical and accurate indicator of the activity of RSV and influenza A virus in the community. Such a system may serve as a valuable means of relatively early detection of the local arrival of these viruses, and recognition of these illness patterns might aid the physician in diagnosis.