Lam TT, Tang JW, Lai FY, Zaraket H, Dbaibo G, Bialasiewicz S, Tozer S, Heraud JM, Drews SJ, Hachette T, Chan PK, Koay ES, Lee HK, Tee KK, Liu Y, Fraaij P, Jennings L, Waris M, Krajden M, Corriveau A, Jalal H, Nishimura H, Nymadawa P, Badarch D, Watanabe A, Kabanda A, Sloots T, Kok J, Dwyer DE, Koopmans M, INSPIRE (International Network for the Sequencing of Respiratory Viruses).
Summary
The results of a large trial monitoring the incidence of a range of respiratory viruses across 18 sites in 14 countries are reported.
The well characterised temporal relationship between RSV and influenza is observed in the developed world, however significant epidemiological variability is observed in all viruses in tropical regions, with more bi-annual and predictable seasonalities in sub-tropical regions such as Hong Kong and Australia.
This study is one of the first publications detailing and comparing internationally gathered disease incidence metrics for this set of respiratory viruses, allowing for interesting comparisons that may allow us to better understand the relationships between the seasonalities of RSV and Influenza, while also being a positive indicator of growing international co-operation in disease surveillance.
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