The cold season 2022 has left marks: Nearly two years ago, an extraordinarily severe RSV wave brought children’s hospitals and paediatric practices, as well as the parents of affected children to their limits. Therefore, the CDC recommends to vaccinate especially vulnerable persons in order to prevent severe RSV infections in newborns and infants as well as the elderly for the upcoming cold season. EUROIMMUN has also reacted to this situation and launches a new RSV assay.
The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an RNA virus from the pneumoviridae family. Among young children and the elderly, it is one of the most common causative agents of partly severe infections of the respiratory tract: Around 25–30% of hospitalisations of infants and toddlers due to acute respiratory tract infections are linked to RSV. In the post-COVID years and the extraordinarily severe RSV waves, this figure was even higher.1, 2 The incubation period of the virus is on average 5 days, and it is transmitted via droplet infection, but also via contaminated hands or surfaces.
While the vaccine offers protection from RSV infection, suitable diagnostic tests enabling fast pathogen detection are another essential part of the medical tool kit and thus important equipment for the cold season: The clinical picture of RSV infection ranges from inflammation of the upper respiratory tracts in the form of rhinitis, cough and pharyngeal inflammation to severe cases of bronchitis and pneumonia when it spreads into the lower respiratory tracts. Since many other viruses such as rhinovirus, influenza virus, SARS-CoV-2, etc. can cause the same symptoms as RSV, the clinical picture is not usually sufficient to identify the causative agent, etc. Especially in severe cases and vulnerable patients, a timely laboratory diagnostic test for pathogen detection is recommended to get clarity and make it possible to take suitable measures.
Consequently, the CDC and RKI give out similar recommendations on diagnostics:
Real-time-PCR-based tests, such as the newly developed EURORealTime RSV A/B, are fast, sensitive and specific and thus the laboratory diagnostic method of choice.
The new EUROIMMUN assay not only allows detection of RSV in nasopharyngeal smears within approx. 1.5 hours, but also differentiation of the virus type (A or B). Owing to a one-tube reaction, the reverse transcription of the viral RNA and the nucleic acid amplification takes place in one reaction The test can be processed automatically with different options available ranging from a mainly manual workflow to a fully automated workflow with the Automated Workstation Pre-NAT II for extraction and PCR set-up. Select the solution that best suits your needs. Thanks to its compatibility with different PCR cyclers, the assay can also be easily integrated into existing laboratory settings. And the EURORealTime Analysis software is your solution for standardised and reliable results.
Equipped like this, you are well prepared for the upcoming cold season!
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1 Li Y, et al. Global, regional, and national disease burden estimates of acute lower respiratory infections due to respiratory syncytial virus in children younger than 5 years in 2019: a systematic analysis. Lancet 399(10340): 2047-2064 (2022).
2 Cai W, et al. Atypical age distribution and high disease severity in children with RSV infections during two irregular epidemic seasons throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Germany, 2021 to 2023. Euro Surveill 29(13):2300465 (2024).