Estimated Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Related Hospitalizations and Deaths Among Children and Adults in Spain, 2016-2019.

Introduction: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes a substantial disease burden among infants. In older children and adults, incidence is underestimated due to nonspecific symptoms and limited standard-of-care testing. We aimed to estimate RSV-attributable hospitalizations and deaths in Spain during 2016-2019.

Substantial health and economic burden of COVID-19 during the year after acute illness among US adults at high risk of severe COVID-19.

Background: Post-COVID conditions encompass a range of long-term symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection. The potential clinical and economic burden in the United States is unclear. We evaluated diagnoses, medications, healthcare use, and medical costs before and after acute COVID-19 illness in US patients at high risk of severe COVID-19.

Health-related quality of life in mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in the UK: a cross-sectional study from pre- to post-infection.

Background: The aim of this study was to estimate the impact of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) over time among individuals in the United Kingdom, adding to the evidence base that had focussed on severe COVID-19.

Methods: A bespoke online survey was administered to individuals who self-reported a positive COVID-19 test. An amended version of a validated generic HRQoL instrument (EQ-5D-5L) was used to measure HRQoL retrospectively at different timepoints over the course of an infection: pre-COVID-19, acute COVID-19, and long COVID.

Maternal Tdap and influenza vaccination uptake 2017-2021 in the United States: Implications for maternal RSV vaccine uptake in the future.

Background: Assessment of maternal vaccine coverage is important for understanding and quantifying the impact of currently recommended vaccines as well as modeling the potential impact of future vaccines. However, existing data lack detail regarding uptake according to week of gestational age (wGA). Such granularity is valuable for more accurate estimation of vaccine impact.

Effect of infant viral respiratory disease on childhood asthma in a non-industrialized setting.

Background: There are limited data from non-industrialized settings on the effects of early life viral respiratory disease on childhood respiratory illness. We followed a birth cohort in tropical Ecuador to understand how early viral respiratory disease, in the context of exposures affecting airway inflammation including ascariasis, affect wheezing illness, asthma, and rhinoconjunctivitis in later childhood.

Methods: A surveillance cohort nested within a birth cohort was monitored for respiratory infections during the first 2 years in rural Ecuador and followed for 8 years for the development of wheeze and rhinoconjunctivitis.

Pediatric Respiratory Syncytial Virus Diagnostic Testing Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: Adding additional specimen types (eg, serology or sputum) to nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) increases respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) detection among adults. We assessed if a similar increase occurs in children and quantified underascertainment associated with diagnostic testing.

Methods: We searched databases for studies involving RSV detection in persons <18 years using ≥2 specimen types or tests.

Underascertainment of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection in Adults Due to Diagnostic Testing Limitations: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: Most observational population-based studies identify respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) by nasal/nasopharyngeal swab reverse transcriptase real-time PCR (RT-PCR) only. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses to quantify specimen and diagnostic testing-based underascertainment of adult RSV infection.

Methods: EMBASE, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched (January 2000-December 2021) for studies including adults using/comparing >1 RSV testing approach.

Public health impact of booster vaccination against COVID-19 in the UK during Delta variant dominance in autumn 2021.

Aim: To evaluate the public health impact of the UK COVID-19 booster vaccination program in autumn 2021, during a period of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant predominance.

Materials And Methods: A compartmental Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered model was used to compare age-stratified health outcomes for adult booster vaccination versus no booster vaccination in the UK over a time horizon of September-December 2021, when boosters were introduced in the UK and the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant was predominant. Model input data were sourced from targeted literature reviews and publicly available data.

Biological factors that may impair transplacental transfer of RSV antibodies: Implications for maternal immunization policy and research priorities for low- and middle-income countries.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading viral cause of acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI), including bronchiolitis and pneumonia, in infants and children worldwide. Protection against RSV is primarily antibody mediated and passively acquired RSV neutralizing antibody can protect infants from RSV ALRI. Maternal immunization is an attractive strategy for the prevention of RSV in early infancy when immune responses to active immunization may be suboptimal and most severe RSV disease and death occur.

COVID-19-associated hospitalizations among children less than 12 years of age in the United States.

Objectives: To describe the characteristics, healthcare resource use and costs associated with initial hospitalization and readmissions among pediatric patients with COVID-19 in the US.

Methods: Hospitalized pediatric patients, 0-11 years of age, with a primary or secondary discharge diagnosis code for COVID-19 (ICD-10 code U07.1) were selected from 1 April 2020 to 30 September 2021 in the US Premier Healthcare Database Special Release (PHD SR).

Real-world retrospective analysis of patient characteristics, healthcare resource utilization, costs, and treatment patterns among unvaccinated adults with COVID-19 diagnosed in outpatient settings in the United States.

Aims: This retrospective analysis of the Optum Clinformatics Data Mart database evaluated US patient characteristics, healthcare resource utilization (HCRU), costs, and treatment patterns among unvaccinated adults with outpatient-diagnosed COVID-19 to quantify US economic burden.

Materials And Methods: The index event was the earliest outpatient diagnosis of confirmed COVID-19 from May 1 to December 10, 2020. Patients had 12 months' continuous enrollment before and were followed for ≥60 days after index date until insurance dis-enrollment or study end.

Estimates of Presumed Population Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 by State in the United States, August 2021.

Background: Information is needed to monitor progress toward a level of population immunity to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sufficient to disrupt viral transmission. We estimated the percentage of the US population with presumed immunity to SARS-CoV-2 due to vaccination, natural infection, or both as of August 26, 2021.

Methods: Publicly available data as of August 26, 2021, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were used to calculate presumed population immunity by state.

Mathematical modelling of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review.

Background: Due to high burden of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), international funding organizations have prioritized the development of RSV vaccines. Mathematical models of RSV will play an important role in assessing the relative value of these interventions. Our objectives were to provide an overview of the existing RSV modelling literature in LMIC and summarize available results on population-level effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.

Live-attenuated Vaccines Prevent Respiratory Syncytial Virus-associated Illness in Young Children.

Active immunization is needed to protect infants and young children against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Rationally designed live-attenuated RSV vaccines are in clinical development. Develop preliminary estimates of vaccine efficacy, assess durability of antibody responses to vaccination and "booster" responses after natural RSV infection, and determine sample sizes needed for more precise estimates of vaccine efficacy.

Hypergammaglobulinemia and Impaired Transplacental Transfer of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Antibody in Papua New Guinea.

Background: Passively-acquired respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) neutralizing antibody (Ab) can protect against RSV-associated lower respiratory tract illness. Maternal RSV immunization is, therefore, an attractive strategy for protection of very young infants. Vaccines for this purpose are currently being evaluated in clinical trials, but conditions such as preterm birth, placental malaria, maternal hypergammaglobulinemia and HIV infection might threaten this strategy.

Clinical Predictors of Critical Lower Respiratory Tract Illness Due to Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Infants and Children: Data to Inform Case Definitions for Efficacy Trials.

We analyzed data from 524 Argentinean infants hospitalized with lower respiratory tract illness (LRTI) due to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to inform selection of clinical end points for RSV vaccine efficacy trials. Cases of LRTI due to RSV that required a mask, continuous or bilevel positive airway pressure, or mechanical ventilation were classified as critical. Oxygen saturation of ≤90%, tachypnea, and tachycardia were each associated with an increased odds of critical LRTI due to RSV (adjusted odds ratios [ORs], 2.

Impact of Placental Malaria and Hypergammaglobulinemia on Transplacental Transfer of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Antibody in Papua New Guinea.

Background: Passively acquired respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) neutralizing antibody protects against RSV-associated lower respiratory infections, but placental malaria (PM) and maternal hypergammaglobulinemia might interfere with transplacental immunoglobulin transport.

Methods: We measured RSV plaque-reduction neutralization (PRN) antibody in 300 full-term maternal/cord serum pairs in 2 cohorts in malaria-endemic Papua New Guinea: Alexishafen (2005-2008) and the Fetal Immunity Study (FIS) (2011-2013). We defined impaired transport as a cord-to-maternal titer ratio <1.

Fetal and neonatal health consequences of vertically transmitted hepatitis E virus infection.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections lead to tens of thousands of deaths annually, mostly in developing countries. Hepatitis E poses a significant threat to the health of expectant mothers, a well-noted epidemiologic feature of the disease, but the contribution of vertically transmitted HEV infection to fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality has received limited attention. Evidence assembled to date suggests that mother-to-child HEV transmission may be frequent and deleterious to the fetus and newborn in pregnancies affected by hepatitis E.

Nonmedical vaccine exemptions and pertussis in California, 2010.

Background: In 2010, 9120 cases of pertussis were reported in California, more than any year since 1947. Although this resurgence has been widely attributed to waning immunity of the acellular vaccine, the role of vaccine refusal has not been explored in the published literature. Many factors likely contributed to the outbreak, including the cyclical nature of pertussis, improved diagnosis, and waning immunity; however, it is important to understand if clustering of unvaccinated individuals also played a role.