Atypical age distribution and high disease severity in children with RSV infections during two irregular epidemic seasons throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Germany, 2021 to 2023.

ABSTRACT: BackgroundNon-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic affected respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) circulation worldwide.AimTo describe, for children aged < 5 years, the 2021 and 2022/23 RSV seasons in Germany.MethodsThrough data and 16,754 specimens from outpatient sentinel surveillance, we investigated RSV seasonality, circulating lineages, and affected children's age distributions in 2021 and 2022/23. Available information about disease severity from hospital surveillance was analysed for patients with RSV-specific diagnosis codes (n = 13,104). Differences between RSV seasons were assessed by chi-squared test and age distributions trends by Mann-Kendall test.ResultsRSV seasonality was irregular in 2021 (weeks 35-50) and 2022/23 (weeks 41-3) compared to pre-COVID-1

SUBMITTER: Cai W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10979527 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature