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. 2023 Mar 4;20(5):4565.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20054565.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Veneto Region: Analysis of Hospital Discharge Records from 2007 to 2021

Silvia Cocchio  1 , Gian Marco Prandi  2 , Patrizia Furlan  1 , Giovanni Venturato  1 , Mario Saia  3 , Thomas Marcon  3 , Giulia Tremolada  1 , Vincenzo Baldo  1
Affiliations

Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Veneto Region: Analysis of Hospital Discharge Records from 2007 to 2021

Silvia Cocchio et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a known cause of acute lower respiratory infections in infants and young children. The present study aims to analyze the temporal trends and characteristics of hospitalization related to RSV in the Veneto region (Italy) in the period between 2007 and 2021. The analysis is performed on all the hospital discharge records (HDRs) of public and accredited private hospitals corresponding to hospitalizations occurring in the Veneto region (Italy). HDRs are considered if they included at least one of the following ICD9-CM codes: 079.6-Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV); 466.11-acute bronchiolitis due to RSV; and 480.1-pneumonia due to RSV. Total annual cases, sex, and age-specific rates and trends are evaluated. Overall, an increasing trend in the number of hospitalizations due to RSV was observed between 2007 and 2019, with a slight drop in RSV seasons 2013-2014 and 2014-2015. From March 2020 to September 2021, almost no hospitalization was registered, but in the last quarter of 2021, the number of hospitalizations reached its highest value in the series. Our data confirm the preponderance of RSV hospitalizations in infants and young children, the seasonality of RSV hospitalizations, and acute bronchiolitis as the most frequent diagnosis. Interestingly, the data also show the existence of a significant burden of disease and a non-negligible number of deaths also in older adults. The present study confirms RSV is associated with high rates of hospitalization in infants and sheds light on the burden in the 70+ age group in which a considerable number of deaths was observed, as well as the parallelism with other countries, which is consistent with a wide underdiagnoses issue.

Keywords: Veneto region; hospitalizations; infants; respiratory syncytial virus; trends.

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Conflict of interest statement

The 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
Flow chart of the study population selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of RSV-related hospitalizations by diagnosis, age group, and field of diagnosis.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of RSV-related hospitalizations between 2007 and 2021 by quarter and for age group.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Hospitalization rates by RSV-season and age group.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Distribution of death by year, age group and diagnosis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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