WEDNESDAY, Oct. 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-associated hospitalizations in Canadian pediatric hospitals were substantial, particularly among infants younger than 6 months of age, according to a study published online Oct. 4 in JAMA Network Open.

Malou Bourdeau, M.D., from McGill University in Montreal, and colleagues examined the epidemiology and burden of RSV-associated hospitalizations among children and adolescents in Canadian tertiary pediatric hospitals from five RSV seasons (2017 to 2022).

The researchers identified 11,014 RSV-associated hospitalizations, including 23.6 percent that involved admission to the intensive care unit, of which 60.8 percent were among children aged younger than 6 months of age. There were 58 RSV-associated hospitalizations reported in 2020 to 2021 and 3,170 hospitalizations in 2021 to 2022 compared with a mean number of 2,522 hospitalizations during prepandemic seasons. Compared with the prepandemic period, age, sex, intensive care unit admission, prolonged length of stay, and case fatality rate did not change in 2021 to 2022. Regional variation was seen for RSV activity and timing.

“These findings suggest that RSV preventive strategies for infants aged less than 6 months would be associated with decreased RSV disease burden in children,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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