eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Epidemiology and Infectious Disease 2333-1275 2020-01-06 8 1 1 4 10.12691/ajeid-8-1-1 AJEID2020811 article Naima Daoudi n.daoudi@uiz.ac.ma 1 2 Hajar Saffour 2 Ghizlane Draiss 3 Nourreddine Rada 3 Mohammed Bouskraoui 3 4 Mouaffak Youssef 5 Younous Said 5 5 Fatiha Bennaoui 6 Nadia El idrissi Sliline 6 Fadl Mrabih Rabou Maouainine 6 Nabila Soraa 6 6 Faculty of Medecine and Pharmacy, University of Ibn Zohr, Agadir, Morocco Service de Pediatrie A, PoleMére Enfant, CHU Mohammed VI, Marrakech, Morocco Pediatric intensive care unit, Pole Mére Enfant, CHU Mohammed VI, Marrakech, Morocco Service de Neonatology, Pole Mére Enfant, CHU Mohammed VI, Marrakech, Morocco Although respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is one of the leading causes of Acute Lower Respiratory Tract Infections (ALRTI) and death in young children worldwide, little is known about the burden of this pathogen in Morroco. Our objectives is to determine the prevalence of RSV infection in children hospitalized with ALRTI. From January to Decembre 2018, nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from 217 children, not older than 24 months of age, and positively tested for RSV using a real-time PCR multiplex assay. From 217 of collected specimens, 49 were tested positively for RSV infection. Eighty four percent of collected samples were collected from children having an age under 6 months; female children were predominant (55.10%), median age was 3.6 months. Higher positivity rate was observed in February that typically features the coldest temperatures of the year (24 cases). In 21 cases RSV was co-detected with at least one of the others virus. Respiratory distress, pneumonia and bronchiolitis were the most common diagnoses of al hospital admissions. Our data demonstrated that RSV remains important viral etiological agent causing severe acute respiratory infections on infant in Marrakech. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajeid/8/1/1/ajeid-8-1-1.pdf acute lower respiratory infections children infants human respiratory syncytial virus hospitalization