Abstracto
Successful management of respiratory syncytial virus outbreak in a hematology and bone marrow transplant unit
Yanjie Xia*, Huarui Xiao, Jin Yang, Qiaoling Tian, Fanfan Xing, Lingling Xie, Xue Wang, Jieling Liu
Background: Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is recognized as one of the most common causes of acute respiratory infections in adults which is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in the elderly and immune compromised adults. Moreover RSV can spread rapidly through close contact through respiratory droplets leading to clusters of cases or outbreaks in health care facilities. Herein we demonstrate the successful control and the risk factors of the RSV outbreak involving 39 patients in a Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Unit.
Methods: We performed an epidemiological investigation, analyzed the risk factors and implemented the infection control measures for this nosocomial RSV outbreak in the Hematology and BMT Unit. Furthermore we implemented the RSV screening for all the inpatients and medical staff of Hematology and BMT Unit and the infection control bundles to stop the outbreak.
Results: 24 patients were tested positive for RSV, 2 of which were confirmed to be hospital acquired respiratory infection according to Chinese hospital infection diagnostic criteria, the other cases were hospital acquired. Our multimodal infection control bundle was able to rapidly control this outbreak, newly diagnosed patients with RSV infection were distributed in the first three weeks of this outbreak. All cases were discharged after recovery or remission.
Conclusion: The successful infection control management of RSV outbreak should include interruption of all potential transmission routes. In Hematology and BMT Unit, restriction of social activities is useful to stop RSV transmission despite some temporal negative impact on the emotional needs of the patients. Universal RSV screening and vigorous enforcement of infection control measures was effective in the containment of this outbreak.