Shimada Daishi, Seki Masafumi
Division of Infectious Diseases, Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital, Sendai City, Japan.
Division of Infectious Diseases and Infection Control, Saitama Medical University International Medical Center, Hidaka City, Japan.
Infect Drug Resist. 2024 Aug 24;17:3669-3675. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S474852. eCollection 2024.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a pathogenic respiratory virus that is considered to affect not only children but also adults, especially elderly persons aged ≥65 years. However, in Japan, the annual epidemic situation and severity of RSV infections in these adults have not yet been clarified, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The epidemic of RSV, especially the number of adults with RSV infection during the COVID-19 period, was retrospectively analyzed. In addition, the clinical features of patients aged ≥65 years (older group) and those aged ≤64 years (younger group) were compared.
A total of 58 patients were found to have RSV infections from April to August 2021. Ten were adults, and five each were detected in June and July, respectively. Of the 10 adult patients, three were in the older group and were more often infected by their grandchildren, and seven were in the younger group. All older patients had underlying diseases, including diabetes mellitus. In addition, the older group showed more severe inflammation, such as increased white blood cell counts and C-reactive protein levels, and received antibiotic therapy, whereas no antibiotics were used for the younger group. Two of the three older patients were admitted to our hospital, but survived.
These data suggest that RSV infection in adult patients was related to the increase in pediatric RSV patients and that the infection season had shifted to summer, similar to other countries. Among the adult RSV patients, those aged ≥65 years were more often infected by their grandchildren and received antibiotics because of their more severe inflammatory status than patients aged ≤64 years during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.
呼吸道合胞病毒（RSV）是一种致病性呼吸道病毒，不仅被认为会影响儿童，还会影响成年人，尤其是65岁及以上的老年人。然而，在日本，这些成年人中RSV感染的年度流行情况和严重程度尚未明确，尤其是在新冠疫情期间。
对RSV的流行情况，尤其是新冠疫情期间RSV感染的成年人数量进行回顾性分析。此外，比较了65岁及以上患者（老年组）和64岁及以下患者（年轻组）的临床特征。
2021年4月至8月共发现58例RSV感染患者。其中10例为成年人，6月和7月各检测到5例。在这10例成年患者中，3例属于老年组，感染源多为其孙辈，7例属于年轻组。所有老年患者均有基础疾病，包括糖尿病。此外，老年组炎症反应更严重，如白细胞计数和C反应蛋白水平升高，并接受了抗生素治疗，而年轻组未使用抗生素。3例老年患者中有2例入院，但均存活。
这些数据表明，成年患者的RSV感染与儿科RSV患者数量的增加有关，且感染季节已转移至夏季，与其他国家情况类似。在日本新冠疫情期间，成年RSV患者中，65岁及以上的患者更常被其孙辈感染，且由于炎症状态比64岁及以下患者更严重而接受了抗生素治疗。
