Novel imported clades accelerated the RSV surge in Beijing, China, 2023-2024

Objectives: Despite the optimization of the zero-COVID policy in late 2022, there was a subsequent increase noted in the number of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases in Northern China. In this study, we investigated and characterized the dynamics of this surge at the genomic level in Beijing, China.

Methods: Patients with acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) were enrolled from 35 sentinel hospitals in Beijing, China. Epidemiological investigations, G gene amplification, and whole-genome sequencing were performed, followed by epidemiological analysis, imported clade detection, and mutation identification. We also combined global data to illustrate the biological and epidemiological characteristics of the emerging clades.

Results: A total of 60,423 patients with ARTIs were recruited between January 2015 and January 2024. The RSV peak observed in the winter of 2023 was the highest in the past 9 years. Two novel imported clades, A.D.5.2 and B.D.E.1, were detected for the first time in China. This surge was mainly driven by B.D.E.1, which exhibited a significantly higher proportion of older individuals both in Beijing and globally. Seven non-synonymous mutations in B.D.E.1 were found in Beijing. B.D.E.1 had more sites suffering from positive selection than its parent.

Conclusions: The novel imported clade B.D.E.1 accelerated an unprecedented RSV surge in Beijing, presenting noteworthy epidemiological and biological characteristics. Continuous RSV genome monitoring has important implications for RSV outbreak identification, genetic diversity tracking, vaccine development, and strategy implementation.