Diagnostic data helps identify trends in respiratory viral infections and emerging threats

What is it about?

This report describes respiratory virus trends from October 2023 to June 2024 in patients of all ages. This is because viral epidemiology changed after the pandemic restrictions. We found that the spread of respiratory viruses went back to normal after the pandemic. Influenza A (IAV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) circulated during the same winter weeks, but people rarely got infected with both at the same time. When we looked at the data by age group, we saw that RSV first in the season caused peaks of infections in children and then in the elderly after the seasonal influenza A epidemic. In the spring of 2024, many cases of rhinovirus (HRV) were identified. They were made up of 25 different types of HRV, as well as two cases of enterovirus (EV)-C105. These findings support the idea that surveillance of respiratory viruses should combine routine molecular diagnostics with epidemiological and clinical data to quickly control unexpected and severe outbreaks.

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Why is it important?

The Covid-19 pandemic and the studies on SARS-CoV-2 variants have provided an impetus to investigate the other respiratory viruses and the main cause of hospitalization for respiratory diseases. Our study adds new elements to the understanding of the epidemiology of respiratory viruses circulating in the post-pandemic period. There is a need for increased epidemiological surveillance of respiratory viruses at the national level, which can predict the intensity of seasonal peaks in order to rationalize healthcare resources and monitor infectivity and pathogenicity of viral variants.