Epidemiology of respiratory syncytial virus in children younger than 5 years in England during the COVID-19 pandemic, measured by laboratory, clinical, and syndromic surveillance: a retrospective observational study

作者：Megan Bardsley, Roger Morbey, Helen E. Hughes, Charles Beck, Conall Watson, Hongxin Zhao, Joanna Ellis, Gillian Smith, Alex J. Elliot · 发表于：The Lancet Infectious Diseases · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1016/s1473-3099(22)00525-4 · 被引用次数：326 · 研究领域：Respiratory viral infections research、SARS-CoV-2 detection and testing、COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies

BACKGROUND: Seasonal epidemics of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cause a clinically significant burden of disease among young children. Non-pharmaceutical interventions targeted at SARS-CoV-2 have affected the activity of other respiratory pathogens. We describe changes in the epidemiology of RSV among children younger than 5 years in England since 2020. METHODS: Surveillance data on RSV infections, comprising laboratory-confirmed cases, proportion of positive tests, hospital admissions for RSV-attributable illness, and syndromic indicators for RSV-associated disease (emergency department attendances for acute bronchitis or bronchiolitis, non-emergency health advice telephone service [NHS 111] calls for cough, general practitioner [GP] in-hours consultations for respiratory tract infections, and GP out-of-hours contacts for acute bronchitis or bronchiolitis) were analysed from Dec 29, 2014 to March 13, 2022, for children younger than 5 years. Data were extracted from national laboratory, clinical, and syndromic surveillance systems. Time-series analyses using generalised linear models were used to estimate the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions targeting SARS-CoV-2 on RSV indicators, with absolute and relative changes calculated by comparing observed and predicted values. FINDINGS: RSV-associated activity was reduced for all RSV indicators during winter 2020-21 in England, with 10 280 (relative change -99·5% [95% prediction interval -100·0 to -99·1]) fewer laborato...