Estimating adult accident and emergency attendances in English hospitals attributed to respiratory syncytial virus

In this short communication, we describe annual accident and emergency (A&E) respiratory illness attendances in English hospitals for the years 2017-2019 estimated to be attributed to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in adults aged ≥18 years. Results suggest RSV caused an overall annual average of 23,440 adult A&E respiratory attendances in England across this period, equating to 53 A&E adult respiratory attendances per 100,000 population per year. Adult respiratory A&E attendance due to RSV increased with age and was highest in older adults, especially those aged ≥75 years where RSV was estimated to cause an average of 238 respiratory attendances per 100,000 population per year. However, this may be under an under ascertainment as respiratory attendances only were included. A further proportion of adult A&E attendances due to cardiac events such as myocardial infarction (MI), arrhythmias and ischemic stroke (IS) may be attributed to an RSV infection, particularly in older adults.