Recommendations for respiratory syncytial virus surveillance at the national level

Anne Teirlinck (1) , Eeva Broberg (2) , Are Stuwitz Berg (3) , Harry Campbell (4) , Rachel Reeves (4) , Annasara Carnahan (5) , Bruno Lina (6, 7) , Gatis Pakarna (8) , Håkon Bøås (3) , Hanna Nohynek (9) , Hanne-Dorthe Emborg (10) , Harish Nair (4) , Janine Reiche (11) , Jesus Angel Oliva (12) , Joanne O’gorman (13) , John Paget (14) , Karol Szymanski (15) , Kostas Danis (16) , Maja Socan (17) , Manuel Gijon (18) , Marie Rapp (5) , Martina Havlíčková (19) , Ramona Trebbien (10) , Raquel Guiomar (20) , Siddhivinayak Hirve (21) , Silke Buda (11) , Sylvie van der Werf (22) , Adam Meijer (1) , Thea Fischer (10, 23, 24)

1 RIVM - National Institute for Public Health and the Environment [Bilthoven]
2 ECDC - European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control [Stockholm, Sweden]
3 NIPH - Norwegian Institute of Public Health [Oslo]
4 University of Edinburgh
5 Public Health Agency of Sweden
6 HCL - Hospices Civils de Lyon
7 Université de Lyon
8 Riga East University Hospital
9 National Institute for Health and Welfare [Helsinki]
10 Statens Serum Institut [Copenhagen]
11 RKI - Robert Koch Institute [Berlin]
12 ISC - Instituto de Salud Carlos III [Madrid]
13 HPSC - Health Protection Surveillance Centre
14 NIVEL - Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research [Utrecht]
15 National Institute of Public Health - National Institute of Hygiene [Poland]
16 Santé publique France - French National Public Health Agency [Saint-Maurice, France]
17 National Institute of Public Health, Ljubljana, Slovenia
18 Penta [Padova]
19 National Institute of Public Health [Prague]
20 INSA - Instituto Nacional de Saùde Dr Ricardo Jorge [Portugal]
21 WHO - World Health Organisation
22 CNRS-UMR3569 - Virologie
23 Nordsjællands Hospital [Hillerød, Denmark]
24 SDU - University of Southern Denmark

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common cause of acute lower respiratory tract infections and hospitalisations among young children and is globally responsible for many deaths in young children, especially in infants aged <6 months. Furthermore, RSV is a common cause of severe respiratory disease and hospitalisation among older adults. The development of new candidate vaccines and monoclonal antibodies highlights the need for reliable surveillance of RSV. In the European Union (EU), no up-to-date general recommendations on RSV surveillance are currently available. Based on outcomes of a workshop with 29 European experts in the field of RSV virology, epidemiology and public health, we provide recommendations for developing a feasible and sustainable national surveillance strategy for RSV that will enable harmonisation and data comparison at the European level. We discuss three surveillance components: active sentinel community surveillance, active sentinel hospital surveillance and passive laboratory surveillance, using the EU acute respiratory infection and World Health Organization (WHO) extended severe acute respiratory infection case definitions. Furthermore, we recommend the use of quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR-based assays as the standard detection method for RSV and virus genetic characterisation, if possible, to monitor genetic evolution. These guidelines provide a basis for good quality, feasible and affordable surveillance of RSV. Harmonisation of surveillance standards at the European and global level will contribute to the wider availability of national level RSV surveillance data for regional and global analysis, and for estimation of RSV burden and the impact of future immunisation programmes.

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

Anne Teirlinck, Eeva Broberg, Are Stuwitz Berg, Harry Campbell, Rachel Reeves, et al.. Recommendations for respiratory syncytial virus surveillance at the national level. European Respiratory Journal, 2021, 58 (3), pp.2003766. ⟨10.1183/13993003.03766-2020⟩. ⟨pasteur-04098223⟩