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. 2021 Jul;26(29):2100639.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.29.2100639.

Low levels of respiratory syncytial virus activity in Europe during the 2020/21 season: what can we expect in the coming summer and autumn/winter?

Jojanneke van Summeren  1 , Adam Meijer  2 , Guðrún Aspelund  3 , Jean Sebastien Casalegno  4 , Guðrún Erna  5 , Uy Hoang  6 , Bruno Lina  4 ; VRS study group in Lyon  7 ; Simon de Lusignan  6 , Anne C Teirlinck  8 , Valtýr Thors  9   10 , John Paget  1
Collaborators, Affiliations

Low levels of respiratory syncytial virus activity in Europe during the 2020/21 season: what can we expect in the coming summer and autumn/winter?

Jojanneke van Summeren et al. Euro Surveill. 2021 Jul.

Erratum in

  • Authors' correction for Euro Surveill. 2021;26(29).
    Eurosurveillance editorial team. Eurosurveillance editorial team. Euro Surveill. 2021 Jul;26(30):210729c1. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.30.210729c1. Euro Surveill. 2021. PMID: 34328077 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Abstract

Since the introduction of non-pharmacological interventions to control COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity in Europe has been limited. Surveillance data for 17 countries showed delayed RSV epidemics in France (≥ 12 w) and Iceland (≥ 4 w) during the 2020/21 season. RSV cases (predominantly small children) in France and Iceland were older compared with previous seasons. We hypothesise that future RSV epidemic(s) could start outside the usual autumn/winter season and be larger than expected. Year-round surveillance of RSV is of critical importance.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; RSV; Respiratory syncytial virus; epidemiology; surveillance data.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: Declaration of Competing Interest: JvS, AM, UH, SdL, and JP were contracted on a Sanofi Pasteur and AstraZeneca funded research project ‘RSV ComNet’ to measure the burden of RSV in young children in primary care during manuscript development. AM and AT receive a grant from the Respiratory Syncytial Virus Consortium in Europe (RESCEU) project of the ‘Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking’ grant agreement No 116019. This Joint Undertaking gets support from the ‘European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme’ and the ‘European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations’. SdL and UH are receiving funding from Roche to evaluate their Cobas Liat point of care testing platform for respiratory viruses in the UK. SdL reports that through his University he has had grants not directly relating to this work, from AstraZeneca, GSK, Sanofi, Seqirus and Takeda for vaccine related research and membership of advisory boards for AstraZenca, Sanofi and Seqirus. JP declares that Nivel has received unrestricted research grants from WHO, Sanofi Pasteur and the Foundation for Influenza Epidemiology. Other authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Respiratory syncytial virus activity in Europe, week 40 2016 to week 20 2021 (n = 17 European Union countries)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Respiratory syncytial virus activity in France, week 40 2016−week 24 2021 and Iceland, week 40 2016−week 27 2021
Figure 3
Figure 3
Respiratory syncytial virus activity in the Netherlands, week 40 2016-week 27 2021 and the United Kingdom, week 41 2016-week 20 2021
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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