OBJECTIVES: Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a leading cause of lower respiratory tract infections and hospitalisations in children¹. This study aims to identify and validate RSV related ICD10 codes to determine hospital admission burden in England, particularly those infants <1 year of age.

METHODS: Four RSV related ICD10 codes were identified in the WHO ICD10 dictionary². These codes (B97.4 Respiratory syncytial virus as the cause of diseases classified to other chapters, J12.1 Respiratory syncytial virus pneumonia, J20.5 Acute bronchitis due to respiratory syncytial virus, J21.0 Acute bronchiolitis due to respiratory syncytial virus) were searched and extracted from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) dataset for non-elective admissions, number of patients, bed days, costs, and mean & median age. The date range for the search was 1/4/2017-31/3/2020.

RESULTS: For the four codes, the median and mean ages across the whole population were;

• B97.4 = 54yo & 47yo
• J12.1 = 71yo & 63yo
• J20.5 = 1yo & 38yo
• J21.0 = 91-181days & 1yo

In patients <1 year old, 91% of non-elective admissions were coded J21.0 (24,949/27,340) and 85% of non-elective costs were coded J21.0 (£44,063,452/£51,559,115)

CONCLUSIONS:

In order to quantify the burden of RSV in infants <1 year of age, optimal searching using J21.0 is most likely to yield the RSV burden in infants <1year of age. With RSV immunisations in late-stage development, accurate testing and recording of RSV infections is critical to understand the true burden of disease and to inform policy and implementation decisions.

1) Shi T, McAllister DA, O’Brien KL, Simoes EAF, Madhi SA, Gessner BD, et al. Global, regional, and national disease burden estimates of acute lower respiratory infections due to respiratory syncytial virus in young children in 2015: a systematic review and modelling study. Lancet. 2017;390(10098):946-958.

2) https://icd.who.int/browse10/2016/en (accessed May 2022)