Hospital-acquired respiratory viral infections are an underappreciated cause of morbidity and mortality in both adult and pediatric patients, a recent study found, with incidence nearly 10-fold higher in pediatric hospitals. This retrospective study was conducted at a tertiary care adult and pediatric teaching hospital from April 1, 2015, to April 1, 2016. Researchers found:

• 40 nosocomial respiratory viral infections in 38 patients involving 14 definite and 3 possible cases were identified in the adult hospital and 18 definite and 5 possible cases in the pediatric hospital.
• The incidence was 5 cases/10,000 admissions and 44 cases/10,000 admissions to the adult and pediatric hospitals, respectively.
• Only 6.8% of cases were due to influenza.
• There are ~18,955 pediatric and adult cases of nosocomial respiratory viral infections in US acute hospitals each year, according to study estimates.