Article in Japanese

The trend of admission due to Respiratory Syncytial Virus infection at nine hospitals in Hyogo prefecture in Japan, from 2016 to 2019

Takeshi UTSUNOMIYA^1,2), Shogo OTAKE³⁾, Saori KURATANI⁴⁾, Masashi KASAI³⁾

Background: Although the start timing of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infection has been earlier in outpatients for several years, it is not clear whether the same applies to inpatients.
Materials and Methods: This study retrospectively investigated RSV patients admitted to nine hospitals at Hyogo prefecture, Japan, from 2016 to 2019. The day of admission was counted as day one. The weekly number and epidemic curves drawn were added at every hospital. Timing of the start, peak and end of RSV admission was compared every season by using the Kruskal-Wallis method. If there was significance, the difference between all seasons also was investigated using the Wilcoxon rank sum test.
Results: Epidemic curves were classified into three patterns: continuous, short-gap intermittent and long-gap intermittent. The start timing of RSV inpatients in the 2018/2019 season was significantly earlier than that in the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 season. The peak timing of RSV inpatients in the 2018/2019 season was significantly earlier than that in the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 season.
Conclusion: The timing of the start and peak in RSV inpatients became earlier, which was similar to that in RSV outpatients. The duration of RSV in inpatients was found to become longer year after a year.

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1) Department of Pediatrics, Hyogo College of Medicine
2) Division of International Health, Graduate School of Medicine and Dental Sciences, Niigata University
3) Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Hyogo Prefectural Kobe Children's Hospital
4) Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Hyogo Prefectural Kobe Children's Hospital

Key words	respiratory syncytial virus infection, Hyogo prefecture, admission trend
Received	January 23, 2020
Accepted	November 18, 2020

32 (4)：353─361,2020