A comparison was made between direct and indirect fluorescent-antibody staining techniques using commercial monoclonal antibodies for detection of respiratory syncytial virus in respiratory secretions. Overall agreement between the two tests was 94%. Using virus isolation as the reference method, the indirect test had a higher sensitivity but a similar specificity when compared with the direct test. The slight delay in reporting using the indirect technique is not clinically significant and is offset by the possibility of convenient combination of the technique with indirect fluorescent-antibodies for detection of other respiratory viruses in respiratory secretions.