Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the single most important cause of severe lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children, and a major public health concern in pediatrics. However, current diagnostic methods for RSV are not sufficiently sensitive. In addition, there is no simple method for enhancing RSV detection. Here, a method for capturing RSV from nasal fluid has been developed using magnetic beads coated with an anionic polymer, poly(methyl vinyl ether-maleic anhydrate). The beads were incubated with RSV-infected nasal fluid, then separated from the supernatant by applying a magnet field and washed. The adsorption [corrected] of RSV by the beads was confirmed by immunochromatography, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, Western blotting and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, which indicated the presence of nucleocapsid protein, fusion protein, and the viral genome of RSV on the incubated beads. Therefore, this capture method will contribute to the improvement of RSV detection.