Effect of young sibling visitation on respiratory syncytial virus activity in a NICU

Objective:to determine whether the restriction of young sibling (<13 years) visitation in the neonatal intensive care unit (nicu) during the respiratory syncytial virus (rsv) season was associated with a reduction in the rate of rsv infection among nicu patients.study design:a retrospective chart review of all rsv positive infants from the 2001–2010 rsv seasons. the 2001–2006 rsv seasons (group 1) contained 639 admissions and the 2007–2010 (group 2, with sibling restriction) contained 461 admissions. groups were compared by using the fisher’s exact test.results:there was a reduction of rsv positive infants from 6.7% in group 1 to 1.7% in group 2 (p<0.0001). there was a reduction of symptomatic infants from the number of infants with symptomatic rsv infection from 23/639 infants with young sibling visitation to 2/461 (p<0.001).conclusion:exclusion of young sibling visitors <13 years of age during rsv season was associated with a significant reduction in the number of rsv positive infants in the nicu.