MONDAY, Dec. 22 (HealthDay News) -- During 2007-2008, the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season lasted for 22 weeks from October to March in the United States, although there were regional variations, according to a report published in the Dec. 19 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Cathy A. Panozzo, of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases in Atlanta, and colleagues analyzed National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System data from July 2007 to the beginning of December 2008 comprising data from 217 laboratories in 44 states that reported for 30 weeks or more and had an average of 10 or more antigen detection tests a week.

There were 369,944 tests for the virus, yielding 58,957 positive results, the researchers report. The national RSV season began in late October and lasted for 22 weeks until March 15, 2008, the investigators found. Excluding data from Florida resulted in a two-week delay to the onset of the national RSV season, the authors note.

"Respiratory syncytial virus is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children aged under 1 year and is a major cause of respiratory illness in older adults," the authors write. "Although no RSV vaccine exists, infants and children at risk for severe RSV infection can receive monthly doses of palivizumab, a humanized murine anti-RSV monoclonal antibody, during the RSV season."

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