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. 2022 Dec 13;226(12):2064-2068.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiac192.

Waning Immunity Against Respiratory Syncytial Virus During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

Frederic Reicherz  1   2 , Rui Yang Xu  1   2 , Bahaa Abu-Raya  1   2 , Abdelilah Majdoubi  1   2 , Christina Michalski  1   2 , Liam Golding  1   3 , Aleksandra Stojic  4 , Marina Vineta  1   3 , Madison Granoski  4 , Zenon Cieslak  5 , Anil Chacko  6 , Neil Desai  2 , Inna Sekirov  7   8 , David J Marchant  4 , Pascal M Lavoie  1   2
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Waning Immunity Against Respiratory Syncytial Virus During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

Frederic Reicherz et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Health jurisdictions have seen a near-disappearance of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) during the first year of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Over this corresponding period, we report a reduction in RSV antibody levels and live virus neutralization in sera from women of childbearing age and infants between May to June 2020 and February to June 2021, in British Columbia (BC), Canada. This supports that antibody immunity against RSV is relatively short-lived and that maintaining optimal antibody levels in infants requires repeated maternal viral exposure. Waning immunity may explain the interseasonal resurgence of RSV cases observed in BC and other countries.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Infants; Lower Respiratory Tract Infections; Neutralizing antibody; Respiratory Syncytial Virus.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest . All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed. PML serves on the British Columbia RSV Immunoprophylaxis Program, a publicly funded program under the British Columbia Ministry of Health and Provincial Health Services Authority. Other authors declare no relevant conflicts of interest.

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