Pathogens & People: RSV vaccine a challenge for scientists

The cold and flu season is here so it seems an appropriate time to discuss another "common cold" virus whose seasonal appearance may wander from mid-October in some states to early July in others.

This errant pathogen is called the Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV. It belongs to the same viral family as the measles and mumps viruses, but it behaves less like them and more like the influenza virus. As with the flu virus, RSV's genetic material is RNA (instead of DNA), it has a protective outer envelope and it comes in two strains (A and B). And as with the flu virus, it also spreads rapidly from person to...