Abstract
Objective
This study aims to evaluate the impact of the first year of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) prevention on hospitalisations for severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) in a paediatric department.
Methods
We conducted a prospective study in the paediatric department at CHU UCL Namur (Dinant site) during two consecutive RSV seasons (2023–24 and 2024–25). All paediatric patients presenting to the emergency department with acute respiratory symptoms who were subsequently hospitalised underwent a nasopharyngeal aspiration/swab for internal virological analysis and subsequent multiplex respiratory panels performed by Sciensano® (SARI sentinel hospital surveillance programme).
Results
During the 2023–24 and 2024–25 winter seasons, 215 and 191 patients were included, respectively, with 105 (49%) and 47 (25%) documented RSV infections, respectively. The proportion of nirsevimab-eligible patients testing positive decreased by 78% between the two seasons. Seven of the 48 (14.6%) patients who received prophylaxis and four of the five (80%) patients who did not received prophylaxis had an RSV infection. The median age of children testing positive for RSV increased from 7.2 months in the 2023–24 season to 20.2 months in the 2024–25 season, and the median length of stay decreased from three to two days, respectively.
Interpretation/conclusion
The implementation and reimbursement of nirsevimab significantly affected RSV-related hospitalisations when comparing pre- and post-surveillance years. A significant increase of 13 months in the median age of RSV-positive hospitalised patients and a decrease in the median length of hospital stay were also observed.