Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Apr:149:105126.
doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2022.105126. Epub 2022 Mar 9.

RSV reemergence in Argentina since the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Acuña Dolores  1 , Goya Stephanie  2 , Nabaes Jodar Mercedes S  2 , Grandis Érica  2 , Alicia S Mistchenko  3 , Viegas Mariana  4
Affiliations

RSV reemergence in Argentina since the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Acuña Dolores et al. J Clin Virol. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Introduction: The community mitigation measures taken because of the COVID-19 pandemic had side effects on the circulation of the most frequent respiratory viruses during 2020. In the case of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), an important paediatric pathogen, a decrease in the number of cases and delayed outbreaks was previously described.

Aim and methods: The genetic characteristics of the RSV circulating strains in paediatric patients in Buenos Aires, Argentina before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were studied. RSV (+) samples taken from hospitalised patients with respiratory tract infections (2018- 2021) were analysed through G gene sequencing and evolutionary analyses.

Results: No RSV hospitalised paediatric patients were registered in Buenos Aires during 2020; however, RSV reemerged in 2021 with a lower number of cases and a delayed outbreak, peaking in July-August. A total of 147 G gene sequences were analysed. RSV-B (N = 85) predominated during 2018 and 2021 whereas in 2019 RSV-A were more prevalent (N = 62). All RSV-A sequences were ON1-like strains, and all RSV-B were BA-like. Phylogenetic analyses showed that the same genetic lineages circulated before and after 2020, but RSVs from 2021 corresponded to new viral introductions rather than cryptic circulation of the previous genetic clusters in Buenos Aires during 2020.

Conclusions: Following the reopening of borders, the reemergence of RSV in Argentina brought new viral introductions from other countries. Therefore, it is important to continue a deep global molecular surveillance to characterise RSV strains in post-pandemic circulation with an impact in future vaccine implementation.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Genetic lineages; Molecular epidemiology; Respiratory syncytial virus.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig. 1
Seasonality of the RSV outbreaks between 2018 and 2021 at the Ricardo Gutiérrez Children's Hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Only hospitalised cases were considered.
Fig 2
Fig. 2
Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic analysis of RSV-A. Argentine sequences from 2018 to 2021 were analysed with sequences from the same period downloaded from GISAID and GenBank databases. Argentine sequences are highlighted in colours according to the year. The genotypes are indicated on the right. The model established by IQTREE was GTR + F + G4. Nodes supports: SH-aLRT support (%)/ultrafast bootstrap support (%) (1000 replicates each). Only supports over 70/70 are shown.
Fig 3
Fig. 3
Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic analysis of RSV-B. Argentine sequences from 2018 to 2021 were analysed with sequences from the same period downloaded from GISAID and GenBank databases. Argentine sequences are highlighted in colours according to the year. The genotypes are indicated on the right. The model established by IQTREE was TIM3 + F + G4. Nodes supports: SH-aLRT support (%)/ultrafast bootstrap support (%) (1000 replicates each). Only supports over 70/70 are shown.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Shi T., McAllister D.A., O'Brien K.L., Simoes E.A.F., Madhi S.A., Gessner B.D., et al. Global, regional, and national disease burden estimates of acute lower respiratory infections due to respiratory syncytial virus in young children in 2015: a systematic review and modelling study. Lancet. 2017 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30938-8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Viegas M., Goya S., Mistchenko A.S. Sixteen years of evolution of human respiratory syncytial virus subgroup A in Buenos Aires, Argentina: GA2 the prevalent genotype through the years. Infection Genet. Evolution. 2016 https://doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2016.04.034. - PubMed
    1. Goya S., Galiano M., Nauwelaers I., Trento A., Openshaw P.J., Mistchenko A.S., et al. Toward unified molecular surveillance of RSV: a proposal for genotype definition. Influenza Other Respiratory Viruses. 2020 doi:10.1111/irv.12715. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rojo G.L., Goya S., Orellana M., Sancilio A., Rodriguez Pérez A., Montali C., et al. Unravelling respiratory syncytial virus outbreaks in Buenos Aires, Argentina: molecular basis of the spatio-temporal transmission. Virology. 2017 doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2017.04.030. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Tabor D.E., Fernandes F., Langedijk A.C., Wilkins D., Lebbink R.J., Tovchigrechko A., et al. Global molecular epidemiology of respiratory syncytial virus from the 2017-2018 INFORM-RSV study. J. Clin. Microbiol. 2020 doi: 10.1128/JCM.01828-20. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types