Dear Colleagues,

Human orthopneumovirus (respiratory syncytial virus, RSV) is a major causative agent of respiratory tract infection worldwide, especially in children and elderly adults. The World Health Organization (WHO) planned the global surveillance of RSV based on the global influenza surveillance and response system (GISRS) in 2015 following the development of a promising vaccine candidate, and started the 1st phase pilot surveillance in 2016. Although the 2nd phase pilot surveillance was also started in 2019, details of outcomes are not available. In surveillance, the detection of RSV should be performed using real-time RT-PCR assays, and the assay developed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States or an equivalent is recommended for accurate estimation of the disease burden. Due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), various activities for RSV were forced to be stopped. Unfortunately, the promising vaccine for RSV was not approved. However, a lot of new modality vaccines were approved during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and these will bring light to new promising vaccines for RSV. For the accurate validation of vaccine efficiency, the precise detection and diagnosis of RSV are critical.

For this Special Issue, we invite authors to send contributions on any aspect that may help to detect and diagnose RSV. Details on the practical use of real-time RT-PCR assays will be especially helpful for readers around the world.

Dr. Kazuya Shirato
Guest Editor

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• respiratory syncytial virus
• acute respiratory infections
• severe acute respiratory infections
• global surveillance
• real-time RT-PCR