Extending influenza surveillance to detect non-influenza respiratory viruses of public health relevance: analysis of surveillance data, 2015-2019, Belgium

BACKGROUND Seasonal influenza-like illness (ILI) affects millions of people yearly. Severe acute respiratory infections (SARI), mainly caused by influenza, are a leading cause of hospitalisation and mortality. Increasing evidence indicates that non-influenza respiratory viruses (NIRVs) also contribute to the burden of SARI. In Belgium, SARI surveillance by a network of sentinel hospitals is ongoing since 2011. AIM Here, we report the results of using in-house multiplex PCRs for the detection of a flexible panel of viruses in respiratory ILI and SARI samples and the estimated incidence rates of... Mehr ...