“In Italy 36,000 hospitalizations a year for syncytial virus”

2023-05-05 19:37:35

“In our country the respiratory syncytial virus is pressing: every year it is estimated that almost 100% of children within two years of life contract RSV infection. And every year in Italy there are about 80,000 outpatient visits required and over 36,000 hospitalizations due to the infection”. So Elena Pariani, associate professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the University of Milan on the sidelines of the 56th national congress of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health (Siti), which closes today in Rome.

In the last two years, “after the respite due to Covid, in which we have implemented a whole series of measures that have blocked the circulation of the RSV and all respiratory virus – explains Pariani – a pocket of susceptible subjects has been created, therefore a sort of immunological debt of the virus which has led to a condition in which the last two seasons have been particularly important in terms of virus circulation, but also characterized by a unusual compared to the past”.

Pariani is certain about the role of surveillance: “it is fundamental because – she says – at the moment we do not have structured surveillance tools at the hospital or emergency room level, so the pediatrician of free choice in her surgery, participating in this surveillance activity, can effectively help to understand the circulation of the virus among the population”. You then cite the example of best practice in Lombardy: “the Lombardy Region, which is part of the Influnet network, has included RSV among the pathogens to be monitored for about ten years. The network created for the surveillance of the influenza virus, implemented since 2020 with the Sar-CoV2, includes the surveillance activity of the RSV. Not only that, for a couple of years this activity has been carried out no longer on a seasonal basis but throughout the year to identify the beginning of the epidemic”.

Against the respiratory syncytial virus at the moment “the only tools we have are those related to non-pharmaceutical measures applied during the Covid period – underlines the expert – but which are clearly difficult to apply if we are talking about infants and very young children”. Prevention “with monoclonal antibodies is very important – concludes Pariani – because the data of the surveillance system tell us that this infection affects a large part of the pediatric population every year, consequently a preventive intervention can be effective in reducing these numbers. Among the tools that will soon be available there will be a monoclonal antibody; therefore, we will not talk about vaccination but about immunization of the youngest and this type of strategy will make it possible to reduce the impact of the infection among the population”.