Surveillance of the respiratory syncytial virus outside infancy: impact of testing methods, a retrospective observational study.
ERJ Open Res
; 10(2)2024 Mar.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38444655
ABSTRACT
Background:
The European Medicines Agency has approved several vaccines to protect the elderly against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections. However, differences in performance between antigen and PCR tests, especially in adults, can make monitoring RSV difficult. This study aims to assess the impact of the chosen diagnostic methods on the surveillance of RSV.Methods:
RSV and influenza test results obtained from July 2022 to June 2023 in a consolidated clinical laboratory in Brussels, Belgium, were collected. These results included antigen tests, quadruplex PCR tests and viral cultures on respiratory samples. Epidemiological trends related to the age of patients and the diagnostic methods were analysed.Results:
Among 14 761 RSV tests, the overall number of positive tests for infants until 1â year of age peaked on 5 November 2022 (67 per 7â days) whereas it peaked on 22 December 2022 for adults (33 per 7â days). Positive antigen tests peaked on 7 November 2022 (56 per 7â days) whereas positive PCRs peaked on 19 December 2022 (36 per 7â days). Nevertheless, the positivity rate of RSV PCRs had peaked 1â month previously. Infants were mainly diagnosed through antigen testing, contrary to older patients. The influenza epidemic was probably the cause of the increased use of a quadruplex PCR, leading to a delayed increase in the absolute number of PCRs positive for RSV.Conclusion:
This study shows that the use of different diagnostic methods could lead to an erroneous representation of RSV epidemiology in adults due to the lack of sensitivity of antigen detection. RSV surveillance in the elderly should rely rather on molecular methods.
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MEDLINE
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En
Año:
2024
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Article