Expanding severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) surveillance beyond influenza: The process and data from 1 year of implementation in Vietnam

Abstract

BackgroundIn 2016, as a component of the Global Health Security Agenda, the Vietnam Ministry of Health expanded its existing influenza sentinel surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) to include testing for 7 additional viral respiratory pathogens. This article describes the steps taken to implement expanded SARI surveillance in Vietnam and reports data from 1 year of expanded surveillance.MethodsThe process of expanding the suite of pathogens for routine testing by real‐time reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (rRT‐PCR) included laboratory trainings, procurement/distribution of reagents, and strengthening and aligning SARI surveillance epidemiology practices at sentinel sites and regional institutes (RI).ResultsSurveillance data showed that of 4003 specimens tested by the RI laboratories, 20.2% (n = 810) were positive for influenza virus. Of the 3193 influenza‐negative specimens, 41.8% (n = 1337) were positive for at least 1 non‐influenza respiratory virus, of which 16.2% (n = 518), 13.4% (n = 428), and 9.6% (n = 308) tested positive for respiratory syncytial virus, rhinovirus, and adenovirus, respectively.ConclusionsThe Government of Vietnam has demonstrated that expanding respiratory viral surveillance by strengthening and building upon an influenza platform is feasible, efficient, and practical.

Burden and seasonality of medically attended influenza like illness (ILI) in Ethiopia, 2012 to 2017

“…The influenza positivity rate for SARI samples was 2.83% which was low compared to findings in South Africa and China which reported 8 and 6% respectively [25,26]. In addition, the presented finding was lower in comparison with 16.5 and 20.2% influenza virus detection rate among SARI cases reported in Eastern Mediterranean Region and Vietnam [27,28]. The variation if the findings might be due to the difference in accuracy of detection of cases at the sentinel sites, the timing of sampling, specimen quality and handling approach, effectiveness of the diagnostic testing in different settings.…”

“…Even if the present finding doesn't entail on SARI, association of the non-hospitalized influenza associated SARI with the ILI indicates that the finding in the present finding is relatively lower. In addition, The mean annual incidence rate of medically attended influenza cases showed variation in comparison to other countries report [24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. The variation in the reported incidence rate among the age group might be due to the actual difference in the incidence of influenza in different countries, the quality of surveillance system, the health care seeking behavior of the community and also it might be due to the different approach/method of analysis for calculating the incidence rate.…”

Virus detections among patients with severe acute respiratory illness, Northern Vietnam

“…Viruses identified in our study are known to sometimes cause severe respiratory disease in humans. Similar to pneumonia etiology studies in Vietnam and central China [1,13,14], influenza A virus was the most common virus detected among patients in our study. Notably, influenza B virus was not detected during the final 10 months of the study (March 2018 through January 2019), which reflects the near absence of influenza B virus cases reported in Vietnam…”

“…Hospitals and clinics often rely on broad nationwide influenza surveillance data to describe pneumonia and SARI outbreaks, a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 neglecting onsite molecular diagnosis of influenza and non-influenza respiratory viruses as potential etiologic agents. However, efforts beyond utilizing influenza surveillance to describe pneumonia and SARI in Vietnam have been demonstrated as feasible and efficient by the Vietnam Ministry of Health [1].…”

Respiratory viruses in individuals with a high frequency of animal exposure in southern and highland Vietnam

“…(PIV)1-4, human CoV (including subtypes OC43 and NL63), human bocavirus (BoV) and parechovirus (PEV) are the most common viruses detected in respiratory samples worldwide. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Of these, influenza A virus, influenza B virus, and CoV have been reported as the most common viruses detected in people over 5 years old, [10][11][12][13] while RSV and PIVs have been regarded as the leading causes of respiratory infections in children under 5 years old in South East Asia. 3,14,15 Zoonotic infections are of global concern, and approximately 60% of known infectious diseases in humans are of zoonotic origin.…”