Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan;23(1):23-25.
doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00763-0. Epub 2022 Dec 1.

Decline of RSV-specific antibodies during the COVID-19 pandemic

Gerco den Hartog  1 , Puck B van Kasteren  2 , Rutger M Schepp  2 , Anne C Teirlinck  2 , Fiona R M van der Klis  2 , Robert S van Binnendijk  2
Affiliations

Decline of RSV-specific antibodies during the COVID-19 pandemic

Gerco den Hartog et al. Lancet Infect Dis. 2023 Jan.
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The study was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sports. The funder had no role in the generation of the data or writing of the manuscript. ACT received funds from the Respiratory Syncytial Virus Consortium in Europe and Preparing for RSV Immunisation and Surveillance in Europe consortium for grants and travel costs. All other authors declare no competing interests. We thank all study participants, the Dutch Working Group on Clinical Virology from the Dutch Society for Clinical Microbiology, and all participating laboratories for providing the virological data from the weekly laboratory virological report.

Figures

Figure
Figure
Changes in IgG concentrations to the post-fusion F protein from 2020 to 2021, relative to notification of RSV infections (A) Weekly RSV surveillance by the Dutch Working Group for Clinical Virology of the Dutch Society for Medical Microbiology and National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (blue line), and sampling periods in June, 2020, February, 2021, and June, 2021 (in grey). (B) Median IgG concentrations in the different age groups of all 558 individuals. General linear models for repeated measurements were used on log10-transformed data to test the decay of antibodies over time (p<0·001), for all age groups except age 31–40 years, and differences between age groups (p<0·001). (C) Individuals (n=9) showing at least a twofold increase in RSV-specific IgG from 2020 to 2021. Each of the individuals that showed at least a twofold increase are represented by a different coloured line. (D) Stratification of people showing at least a twofold increase in IgG, which is indicative of exposure to the virus, and those who did not. The difference in antibody concentrations between the two groups in 2020 was assessed with student's t test on log10-transformed concentrations. The boxplot shows medians and quartiles. AU=arbitrary units. RSV=respiratory syncytial virus. *Outliers.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bardsley M, Morbey RA, Hughes HE, et al. 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. Lancet Infect Dis. 2022 doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00525-4. published online Sept 2. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Delestrain C, Danis K, Hau I, et al. Impact of COVID-19 social distancing on viral infection in France: a delayed outbreak of RSV. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2021;56:3669–3673. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Eden J-S, Sikazwe C, Xie R, et al. Off-season RSV epidemics in Australia after easing of COVID-19 restrictions. Nat Commun. 2022;13:2884. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Billard M-N, Bont LJ. Quantifying the RSV immunity debt following COVID-19: a public health matter. Lancet Infect Dis. 2022 doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00544-8. published online Sept 2. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Reicherz F, Xu RY, Abu-Raya B, et al. Waning Immunity against respiratory syncytial virus during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Infect Dis. 2022 doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiac192. published online May 7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Substances