Jollivet Ombeline, Urchueguía-Fornes Arantxa, Chung-Delgado Kocfa, Klint Johannesen Caroline, Lehtonen Toni, Gideonse David, Cohen Rachel A, Kramer Rolf, Orrico-Sánchez Alejandro, Fischer Thea K, Heikkinen Terho, Van Boven Michiel, Nair Harish, Campbell Harry, Osei-Yeboah Richard
Sanofi, Lyon, France.
Vaccine Research Department, Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research in the Valencian Region (FISABIO - Public Health), Valencia, Spain; CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
Int J Infect Dis. 2025 Jun;155:107903. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2025.107903. Epub 2025 Apr 30.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a substantial cause of hospital admission in young children and leads to seasonal pressure on pediatric emergency units in most countries. This study aims to assemble national or large-scale data on RSV hospitalisations from six European countries with a standardised approach to provide recent burden data for all children and assess changes since SARS-CoV-2's emergence.
We analysed 2016-2023 hospital records from national registries in Denmark, England, Finland, The Netherlands, and Scotland, and from a hospital surveillance network in Spain-Valencia for children below 18 years. We considered separately RSV-coded and RSV laboratory-confirmed cases, comparing them to respiratory tract infections. We studied the temporal evolution of incidence rates and case reporting practices, comparing pre- and post-COVID-19 periods.
Post-COVID-19 observed RSV hospital burden was similar to the pre-COVID-19 one for younger children but higher for the 1-2 years, 3-4 years, and 5-17 years age groups. No change in terms of coding-neither diagnosis nor RSV-coding when RSV was laboratory-confirmed-was detected.
Hospital RSV burden in children is significant but currently not fully monitorable. Further efforts to harmonise coding practices both within and across countries would improve the quality of future analyses. Additional data in future seasons should complement current outcomes to inform decisions regarding RSV prevention.
呼吸道合胞病毒（RSV）是幼儿住院的一个重要原因，在大多数国家给儿科急诊科室带来季节性压力。本研究旨在采用标准化方法收集六个欧洲国家关于RSV住院情况的全国性或大规模数据，以提供所有儿童近期的疾病负担数据，并评估自新冠病毒出现以来的变化。
我们分析了丹麦、英格兰、芬兰、荷兰和苏格兰国家登记处以及西班牙巴伦西亚一个医院监测网络2016 - 2023年18岁以下儿童的医院记录。我们分别考虑了RSV编码病例和RSV实验室确诊病例，并将它们与呼吸道感染进行比较。我们研究了发病率和病例报告做法的时间演变，比较了新冠疫情前和后的时期。
新冠疫情后观察到的RSV住院负担在年幼儿童中与疫情前相似，但在1 - 2岁、3 - 4岁和5 - 17岁年龄组中更高。未检测到编码方面的变化——无论是诊断编码还是RSV实验室确诊时的RSV编码。
儿童RSV住院负担较重，但目前尚无法完全监测。在国内和跨国层面进一步统一编码做法的努力将提高未来分析的质量。未来季节的额外数据应补充当前结果，为RSV预防决策提供依据。
