In recent weeks, a wave of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections has swept Austria. The danger of the disease has apparently been underestimated so far. A new study shows that almost a quarter of sick seniors suffer from a heart complication.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC/Atlanta), which is world-renowned in medical circles, has recently been increasingly concerned with RSV infections. Since last year, there have been vaccines intended, on the one hand, to protect babies by immunizing expectant mothers during pregnancy, and on the other hand, vaccines for people in the age group over 60 years old. Infants and seniors have an increased risk of serious illness.
The results of a new CDC monitoring network were recently published in the American journal JAMA Internal Medicine of the American Medical Association (AMA) (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2024.0212), as the German Medical Journal also reported.
6248 study participants
In addition to the ‘Hospitalization Surveillance Networks’ for influenza (FluSurv-NET) and Covid-19 (COVID-NET), an RSV-NET was also set up in twelve American states. The course of the disease in people over 50 years old and with RSV infection confirmed by laboratory tests was evaluated for the years 2014/2015, 2017/2018 and 2022/2023 – each for the classic ‘seasons’ for such diseases.
The group of people analyzed consisted of 6248 hospitalized older adults with an average age of 72.7 years. Nearly 60 percent of those affected were women.
Complication rate higher than Covid
The observations suggest a higher rate of complications due to acute cardiovascular disease in RSV diseases upon hospitalization than in influenza and Covid-19. With an estimated frequency of 22.4 percent, almost one in four patients developed such a disease in addition to the infection.
For example, 15.8 percent suffered from acute heart failure. 7.5 percent developed ischemic heart disease (unstable angina, heart attack, etc.) and 1.3 percent entered a hypertension crisis. 18.6 percent of patients hospitalized for RSV required intensive care. The mortality rate was 4.9 percent.
RSV not yet tested
Study author Rebecca Woodruff (CDC) compared this with the complications after flu or after Covid-19 disease: Scientific studies showed a frequency of acute heart failure of 5.5 to nine percent during the course of severe flu with hospitalization, among hospitalized people . In studies, this was the case in four to 8.5 percent of people affected by Covid-19 patients. According to the study authors, a stronger inflammatory response may be responsible for the RSV complications.
It is easy to explain why the risk of RSV complications has been underestimated so far: seniors with severe respiratory diseases have so far been consistently tested for influenza and Covid-19, but not for RSV.
Source: Krone
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