Detection of respiratory syncytial virus serum antibodies by an ELISA system

An ELISA test for respiratory syncytial (RS) virus assay was adapted and standardized; it gave 10-15 times higher antibody titres than complement fixation (CF) but was not a more sensitive test for detecting recent RS virus infection in persons above 1 year of age. In testing normal-population sers, ELISA revealed twice more positive sera than the CF test. Owing to its high sensitivity and apparent ability to detect long-persisting antibodies, ELISA is the test of choice for sero-epidemiological surveys on RS virus infections.