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Epidemiology and genetic variability of respiratory syncytial virus in Portugal, 2014–2018

2019; Elsevier BV; Volume: 121; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jcv.2019.104200

1873-5967

Emma Sáez-López, Paula Cristóvão, Inês Costa, Pedro Pechirra, Patrícia Conde, Raquel Guiomar, Maria João Peres, Regina Viseu, Paulo Lopes, Vânia Muniz Néquer Soares, Fátima Vale, Patrícia Fonseca, Ludivina Freitas, José Antônio Barreto Alves, Maria Ana Pessanha, Cristina Toscano, Luísa Mota‐Vieira, Rita Cabral Veloso, Rita Côrte‐Real, Paula Branquinho, João Luiz Pereira Vaz, Fernando Rodrigues, Mário Cunha, Luís Martins, Paula Mota, Ana Rita Couto, Jácome Bruges‐Armas, Sofia Almeida, Débora Rodrigues,

Pneumonia and Respiratory Infections

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality since it is a predominant viral agent causing respiratory tract infections in infants, young children and the elderly. Considering the availability of the RSV vaccines in the coming years, molecular understanding in RSV is necessary.The objective of the present study was to describe RSV epidemiology and genotype variability in Portugal during the 2014/15-2017/18 period.Epidemiological data and RSV-positive samples from patients with a respiratory infection were collected through the non-sentinel and sentinel influenza surveillance system (ISS). RSV detection, subtyping in A and B, and sequencing of the second hypervariable region (HVR2) of G gene were performed by molecular methods. Phylogenetic trees were generated using the Neighbor-Joining method and p-distance model on MEGA 7.0.RSV prevalence varied between the sentinel (2.5%, 97/3891) and the non-sentinel ISS (20.7%, 3138/16779), being higher (P < 0.0001) among children aged <5 years. Bronchiolitis (62.9%, 183/291) and influenza-like illness (24.6%, 14/57) were associated (P < 0.0001) with RSV laboratory confirmation among children aged <6 months and adults ≥65 years, respectively. The HVR2 was sequenced for 562 samples. RSV-A (46.4%, 261/562) and RSV-B (53.6%, 301/562) strains clustered mainly to ON1 (89.2%, 233/261) and BA9 (92%, 277/301) genotypes, respectively, although NA1 and BA10 were also present until 2015/2016.The sequence and phylogenetic analysis reflected the relatively high diversity of Portuguese RSV strains. BA9 and ON1 genotypes, which have been circulating in Portugal since 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 respectively, predominated during the whole study period.