New research suggests the COVID-19 pandemic is responsible for more severe resurgences of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children younger than 5, making them more prone to infection and hospitalization and shifting the disease burden to older children.
In a retrospective study published on April 18 in JAMA Network Open, researchers found that the 2021 and 2022 RSV seasons among older children were worse than those before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. Notably, young children aged 2 to 5 years old were nearly five times more likely to be hospitalized due to RSV in 2022 than at any time between 2015 and 2019, and the epidemiological characteristics of the RSV season shifted to warmer months.
