Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Greece, 2016-2018.

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of acute bronchiolitis in infants and young children. Children under the age of 2 years, hospitalized for bronchiolitis in the pediatric clinic of a tertiary hospital in northern Greece, were tested for RSV infection during two RSV seasons (2016-2017 and 2017-2018). RSV was detected in 37 of 71 (52.1%) patients, most of them younger than 6 months. Both RSV subtypes were detected - RSV-A (54.1%) and RSV-B (45.9%) - with predominance of RSV-A during the 2016-2017 and RSV-B during the 2017-2018 season. RSV-A and RSV-B sequences clustered within the ON1 and BA genotypes, respectively. Compared to the prototype strains, several amino acid substitutions were observed in the duplication region of the G gene. The study provides a first insight into the molecular epidemiology of RSV in Greece.