Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infections are a major cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children under 5 years of age. A study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, one of the most prestigious international scientific journals in the field, assessed the social impact of this disease on families and health services in five European countries: Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. The research, which involved the University of Pisa, ran from 2021 to 2023 and included over 3,400 children.
The data showed that almost one-third (32.9%) of acute respiratory infections in preschool children were associated with RSV. The average duration of the disease was about 12 days, with over 45% of parents having to leave work and 70% of children missing days of school or preschool. The results also showed significant differences between the countries included in the study in terms of therapeutic approaches, use of health resources, and social impact.
The focus on Italy showed that the RSV positive rate in children was 42.6%, which was the highest rate among the participating countries. RSV-positive children in Italy had an average of 3 primary care visits, on a par with Spain, compared to 1.4 in the Netherlands. The average duration of the disease was 11.7 days, just below the general average. Additionally, 76.8% of Italian RSV-positive children received medications, with bronchodilators and antibiotics among the most commonly prescribed, whereas in countries such as the United Kingdom the use of medications was more limited. In line with the general figure, 45.7% of Italian parents had to be absent from work with an average of 4.1 days lost, as in Belgium, compared with 1.3 days in Spain.
“The results highlight the need to improve prevention in order to reduce the burden on families and health systems, especially in winter when the virus is more prevalent,” emphasises Professor Caterina Rizzo, Full Professor of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the University of Pisa. “In recent years, new preventive tools against RSV have been approved in Europe, including a new monoclonal antibody to immunise newborn babies and a vaccine to be injected during pregnancy. These are measures that can have a positive impact not only on children’s health but also on the overall organisation of primary care”.
Caterina Rizzo, a professor at the Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, and her group are a point of reference in the field of surveillance and prevention of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, with particular reference to acute respiratory diseases. For more than ten years, Rizzo has coordinated the integrated surveillance system for flu-like syndromes in Italy at the Italian Istituto Superiore di Sanità and has been part of the National Technical Advisory Group for Immunization (NITAG).
The research, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, was funded by Sanofi and AstraZeneca through the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, in the Netherlands.