Topic summary

Human respiratory syncytial virus

Extracted from the Wikipedia article Respiratory syncytial virus.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), also called human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) and human orthopneumovirus, is a virus that causes infections of the respiratory tract. It is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus. Its name is derived from the large, multinucleated cells known as syncytia that form when infected cells fuse.