Naima Daoudi^{1, 2,}, Hajar Saffour², Ghizlane Draiss³, Nourreddine Rada³, Mohammed Bouskraoui^{3, 4}, Mouaffak Youssef⁵, Younous Said^{5, 4}, Fatiha Bennaoui⁶, Nadia El idrissi Sliline⁶, Fadl Mrabih Rabou Maouainine⁶, Nabila Soraa^{2, 4}

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.

acute lower respiratory infections, children, infants, human respiratory syncytial virus, hospitalization