{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,5]],"date-time":"2026-05-05T03:00:19Z","timestamp":1777950019186,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1777852800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Pediatr."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>RSV infection affects mostly infants and induces a substantial economic and medical burden for our health care systems. To implement effective preventive strategies against RSV the knowledge about its distinct seasonality is crucial.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We retrospectively studied the epidemiology of RSV infection in pediatric patients admitted to a German hospital over a period of ten years by comparing their clinical data. Inclusion criterion was a laboratory confirmed RSV infection with diagnosis of bronchitis, bronchiolitis, or pneumonia. For analyses six pre-COVID years were cumulated and compared to the pandemic and post-pandemic seasons. Statistical methods included descriptive measures and exploratory tests for comparing seasons (i.e., Fisher's exact test).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Overall, data of 1,220 children below 12 years of age (including 1,040 below 2 years) could be analyzed. The pre-COVID RSV seasons started in December and peaked in January\/February. During the pandemic we detected no case in 2020\/21. Season 2021\/22 started in August and peaked in October, whereas the first post-pandemic season 2022\/23 started in October and peaked in November. The need for intensive care and oxygen supply was significantly increased in 2022\/23 compared to 2021\/22. Moreover, bacterial superinfection and antibiotic treatment appeared to be significantly more frequent, also in comparison to the pre-COVID seasons.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Our study shows that the usual RSV epidemiology abruptly changed with the start of the COVID-19 epidemic. After a loss of severe RSV associated disease in 2020\/21 a catch up effect could be notified in hospitalized patients in the following seasons, ending up in an almost normal season 2024\/25. Future RSV monitoring is strongly recommended to calculate the hospital necessary resources, since vaccination programs, i.e., nirsevimab for infants and maternal vaccination during pregnancy, have already been started in Germany.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fped.2026.1771759","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T05:34:07Z","timestamp":1777872847000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Epidemiology of respiratory syncytial virus in a German hospital before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic \u2013 a real world monocentric analysis over ten years"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Svenja","family":"Loerch","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatrics, Johanniter Medical Center Hamm","place":["Hamm, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Frank","family":"Erdn\u00fc\u00df","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pharmacy, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz","place":["Mainz, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Beate","family":"Frerich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatrics, Johanniter Medical Center Hamm","place":["Hamm, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Thorsten","family":"Reineke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University","place":["Karlsruhe, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wolfgang","family":"Kamin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pediatrics, Johanniter Medical Center Hamm","place":["Hamm, 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