A child with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) requires precautions. Which precautions are appropriate?

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The main idea here is how infections spread and what protections are needed to stop that spread. RSV mainly moves through droplets released when someone coughs or sneezes and by touching contaminated surfaces, not by small airborne particles that linger in the air. Because of that, the appropriate precautions are standard precautions plus droplet precautions and contact precautions (gloves and gown when handling Secretions, plus a mask when working close to the patient or with those droplets). Airborne precautions, which use a negative-pressure room and a respirator, are reserved for diseases that truly spread through tiny aerosols that stay suspended in air (like TB, measles, or varicella). So for routine RSV care, airborne precautions aren’t needed; use standard with droplet and contact precautions, and add airborne precautions only if an aerosol-generating procedure is being performed.