Influence of meteorological conditions on RSV infection in Portugal

Abstract

Acute viral bronchiolitis is a common cause for infant hospital admissions. Of all etiological agents, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is commonly the most frequent. The present study assesses relationships between atmospheric factors and RSV infections in under 3-year-old patients admitted to the Inpatient Paediatric Service of Vila Real (North of Portugal). For this purpose, (1) clinical files of children admitted with a diagnosis of acute bronchiolitis from September 2005 to December 2015 (>10 years) were scrutinised and (2) local daily temperature/precipitation series, as well as six weather types controlling meteorological conditions in Portugal, were used. Fifty-five percent of all 770 admitted children were effectively infected with a given virus, whilst 48 % (367) were RSV+, i.e. 87 % of virus-infected children were RSV+. The bulk of incidence is verified in the first year of age (82 %, 302), slightly higher in males. RSV outbreaks are typically from December to March, but important inter-annual variability is found in both magnitude and shape. Although no clear connections were found between monthly temperatures/precipitation and RSV outbreaks apart from seasonality, a linkage to wintertime cold spells is apparent on a daily basis. Anomalously low minimum temperatures from the day of admittance back to 10 days before are observed. This relationship is supported by anomalously high occurrences of the E and AA weather types over the same period, which usually trigger dry and cold weather. These findings highlight some predictability in the RSV occurrences, revealing potential for modelling and risk assessments.

Paramyxoviruses respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza virus, and human metapneumovirus infection in pediatric hospitalized patients and climate correlation in a subtropical region of southern China: a 7-year survey

“…RSV, infA, MP, ADV, HRV, and PIV were the six most frequently detected pathogens in this study (Fig. 1); these results are consistent with previous reports from China as well as international studies [1,2,35,36].…”

“…Nearly half of all patients had positive test results for one or more of the pathogens of interest; moreover, all pathogens in the panel were detected, indicating the complexity and diversity of ARI etiology (Table 1). Higher pathogen prevalence was found among male patients than female ones (p = 0.002), similar to previous reports [35]. RSV, infA, MP, ADV, HRV, and PIV were the six most frequently detected pathogens in this study (Fig.…”

“…However, regression models using mean temperature in the preceding month model were not established. In general, the trend of associations between climate factors and respiratory pathogen activity varies with geographic location [35,[48][49][50][51][52][53]. In this study, RSV and HMPV had similar seasonal distribution patterns, and both were negatively correlated with sunshine duration ( Table 2, Fig.…”

Practical Guidance for Clinical Microbiology Laboratories: Viruses Causing Acute Respiratory Tract Infections

“…Environmental factors may also influence the incidence of disease caused by respiratory viral infection either alone or with other underlying factors such as asthma (50). These factors may include the number of siblings in family, environmental smoking exposure (51), air pollution, climatic conditions, or weather (52,53).…”

Climatic discomfort and morbidity at the Russian Far East

“…Полученные результаты еще раз подкрепляют выводы многочисленных работ российских и иностранных авторов о зависимости как общей заболеваемости [9,11,14,17], так и заболеваний органов кровообращения [11,14,24] и дыхания [4,11,14,28], эндокринной системы [11,14,17,21,28], инфекционных и паразитарных болезней [13,14,18,20,27,28], психических расстройств, включая суициды [12,16,19,23,26], травм и других внешних причин, в том числе автомобильных катастроф [22,25] от климато-погодных условий. При этом сезонные вариации могут несколько отличаться от выявленных нами в зависимости от региона исследований, а также различаться для отдельных групп населения повышенного рискадетей [28] и лиц старшего возраста [14].…”