Respiratory syncytial virus is not an important community acquired pathogen in adult hematological malignancy patients.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has been reported as a leading cause of upper and lower viral respiratory tract infection in high-risk adult populations. We prospectively studied 48 patients with hematological malignancies over a period of 2 years. Throat and nasal washings were subjected to immunofluorescence and cell culture for virus isolation. Of these 48 patients, 31 had acute leukemia, 6 had chronic leukemia, 10 had lymphoma and one had multiple myeloma. The median age of the patients was 20 years with a male to female ratio of 4:1. No RSV was detected in any of the samples. RSV was not found as a major cause of community acquired upper respiratory tract infections in adults with hematological malignancies in India.