Global Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Related Infant Community Deaths.
Mazur NI., Löwensteyn YN., Willemsen JE., Gill CJ., Forman L., Mwananyanda LM., Blau DM., Breiman RF., Madhi SA., Mahtab S., Gurley ES., El Arifeen S., Assefa N., Scott JAG., Onyango D., Tippet Barr BA., Kotloff KL., Sow SO., Mandomando I., Ogbuanu I., Jambai A., Bassat Q., CHAMPS Network the RSV GOLD Study Group None., Caballero MT., Polack FP., Omer S., Kazi AM., Simões EAF., Satav A., Bont LJ.
BackgroundRespiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of pediatric death, with >99% of mortality occurring in low- and lower middle-income countries. At least half of RSV-related deaths are estimated to occur in the community, but clinical characteristics of this group of children remain poorly characterized.MethodsThe RSV Global Online Mortality Database (RSV GOLD), a global registry of under-5 children who have died with RSV-related illness, describes clinical characteristics of children dying of RSV through global data sharing. RSV GOLD acts as a collaborative platform for global deaths, including community mortality studies described in this supplement. We aimed to compare the age distribution of infant deaths <6 months occurring in the community with in-hospital.ResultsWe studied 829 RSV-related deaths <1 year of age from 38 developing countries, including 166 community deaths from 12 countries. There were 629 deaths that occurred <6 months, of which 156 (25%) occurred in the community. Among infants who died before 6 months of age, median age at death in the community (1.5 months; IQR: 0.8-3.3) was lower than in-hospital (2.4 months; IQR: 1.5-4.0; P ConclusionsWe observed that children in the community die at a younger age. We expect that maternal vaccination or immunoprophylaxis against RSV will have a larger impact on RSV-related mortality in the community than in-hospital. This case series of RSV-related community deaths, made possible through global data sharing, allowed us to assess the potential impact of future RSV vaccines.