Seasonality of Respiratory Syncytial Virus - Lower Respiratory Tract Infection (RSV-LRTI) in Children in Developing Countries

Abstract

The global estimate in 2005 indicate that at least 33.8 million episodes of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) associated acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) occurred worldwide in children younger than 5 years and most of these deaths occurred in developing countries. The review aimed to analyze published epidemiological data on RSV lower respiratory tract infection in young children in developing countries to ascertain the burden of the disease for evidence-based public health priorities. Articles in English published between 2002 and 2014 were identified through literature searches in PubMed, Web of knowledge, and Embase. The incidence of RSV-LRTI in Asian countries were lower than African countries except Bangladesh. Rate of hospitalized LRTI was similar in magnitude across all studies. Despite an increasing number of epidemiological studies of RSV-LRTI published over the past 13 years in developing countries, there are still clearly many areas that merit further study. There is still a need to establish further RSV surveillance studies to improve the incidence estimates and to explore the extent to which national and regional variation in RSV infection rates exist in countries where there is a high burden and high mortality attributable to LRTI but lack of understanding of local RSV epidemiology.