Traditional surveillance methods might not fully capture the scope of RSV-related hospitalizations, potentially underestimating its burden. For a study published in Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, Amanda C. Howa, MD, and colleagues applied capture recapture techniques to more accurately estimate the number of RSV related hospitalizations. The data spanned four consecutive RSV seasons (2016-2020) and utilized data from the Hospitalized Adult Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Network (HAIVEN) and the Emerging Infections Program (EIP) surveillance systems. The actual rates of hospital ad – missions due to RSV were consistently higher than those reported by individual surveillance systems. Hospitalization rates ranged from 8.3 per 10,000 individuals in the 2016-2017 season to 28.4 per 10,000 in the 2019-2020 season. HAIVEN captured only 8.7% to 36.7% of these estimated cases, while EIP detected between 23.5% and 52.7%. The study highlights the value of using capture recapture methods to provide a more complete, more accurate picture of RSV and suggests that traditional surveillance significantly underestimates the true hospitalization rates from this virus.