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Influence of meteorological conditions on RSV infection in Portugal

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Abstract

Acute viral bronchiolitis is a common cause for infant hospital admissions. Of all etiological agents, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is commonly the most frequent. The present study assesses relationships between atmospheric factors and RSV infections in under 3-year-old patients admitted to the Inpatient Paediatric Service of Vila Real (North of Portugal). For this purpose, (1) clinical files of children admitted with a diagnosis of acute bronchiolitis from September 2005 to December 2015 (>10 years) were scrutinised and (2) local daily temperature/precipitation series, as well as six weather types controlling meteorological conditions in Portugal, were used. Fifty-five percent of all 770 admitted children were effectively infected with a given virus, whilst 48 % (367) were RSV+, i.e. 87 % of virus-infected children were RSV+. The bulk of incidence is verified in the first year of age (82 %, 302), slightly higher in males. RSV outbreaks are typically from December to March, but important inter-annual variability is found in both magnitude and shape. Although no clear connections were found between monthly temperatures/precipitation and RSV outbreaks apart from seasonality, a linkage to wintertime cold spells is apparent on a daily basis. Anomalously low minimum temperatures from the day of admittance back to 10 days before are observed. This relationship is supported by anomalously high occurrences of the E and AA weather types over the same period, which usually trigger dry and cold weather. These findings highlight some predictability in the RSV occurrences, revealing potential for modelling and risk assessments.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by European Investment Funds by FEDER/COMPETE/POCI—Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Programme, under Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006958 and National Funds by FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UID/AGR/04033/2013. The authors also thank CHTMAD for providing the paediatric admission data and IPMA for providing the meteorological data for the Vila Real weather station.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Centro Hospitalar de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro EPE, CHTMAD, Vila Real, Portugal

    M. Oliveira-Santos

  2. Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-environmental and Biological Sciences, CITAB, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, UTAD, Vila Real, Portugal

    J. A. Santos

  3. Paediatric Department, Centro Hospitalar de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro EPE, CHTMAD, Vila Real, Portugal

    J. Soares, A. Dias & M. Quaresma

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  1. M. Oliveira-Santos
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Correspondence to M. Oliveira-Santos.

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Oliveira-Santos, M., Santos, J.A., Soares, J. et al. Influence of meteorological conditions on RSV infection in Portugal. Int J Biometeorol 60, 1807–1817 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-016-1168-1

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