Pediatric Respiratory Virus Burden: Recent Insights and Implications from Poland

A multicenter retrospective observational study from Poland’s 2022–23 RSV season found infants shouldered the clinical burden: 57.4% of hospitalized children were under 12 months and 21.1% required respiratory support—highlighting concentrated infant admissions and meaningful respiratory-care demand.

This deviates from pre‑pandemic seasonality and surveillance norms: the timing and pediatric case mix shifted toward younger infants, which alters staffing cycles and the optimal timing and targeting of prophylaxis programs and suggests surveillance windows and prophylaxis campaigns may need recalibration.

The multicenter cohort (n=419 children ≤5 years) in the report shows a majority (57.4%) younger than 12 months, with the remaining admissions spread across older infant and toddler strata without finer public breakdown; the analysis therefore confirms that infants dominate severe-case volume and that primary-care and inpatient teams should anticipate most severe RSV admissions in this age group.

Resource-use data underline ward-level demand: 21.1% of hospitalized children required respiratory support, 56.8% received a pneumonia diagnosis and 35.9% bronchiolitis. Reported treatments included inhaled steroids (67.6%), antibiotics (61.5%) and systemic steroids (44.3%), indicating notable oxygen and ventilator needs and reinforcing the need for vigilant antibiotic stewardship.