| respiratory syncytial virus outbreak on american samoa. evaluation of risk factors. | acute respiratory illness is one of the leading causes of childhood mortality in developing nations. we investigated an increase in hospitalizations of children less than 2 years old for severe lower respiratory tract illness (lri) from october 1986 through december 1986 on the island of american samoa. hospitalization rates were highest in children less than 6 months of age (60 of 1000 compared with 22 of 1000 for those 6 to 11 months of age, and seven of 1000 for those 12 to 24 months of age). ... | 1989 | 2916509 |