Long-term impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on respiratory viruses in Germany
Abstract Background Respiratory viral diseases are one of the greatest challenges facing our healthcare system, with them being one of the main causes of death. This has been demonstrated once again by the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in recent years. We study the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pande...
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BMC
2025-08-01
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-23983-8 |
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| author | Ralf Eggeling Florian König Lisa Koeppel Laura-Inés Böhler Michael Böhm Norbert Schmeißer Nico Pfeifer Rolf Kaiser Clinical Virology Network |
| author_facet | Ralf Eggeling Florian König Lisa Koeppel Laura-Inés Böhler Michael Böhm Norbert Schmeißer Nico Pfeifer Rolf Kaiser Clinical Virology Network |
| author_sort | Ralf Eggeling |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Respiratory viral diseases are one of the greatest challenges facing our healthcare system, with them being one of the main causes of death. This has been demonstrated once again by the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in recent years. We study the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the prevalence of respiratory viruses by analysing a subset of the Clinical Virology network database, covering 2,216,198 samples tested for 18 different viral pathogens in the time span from 2010 to 2024. Methods We calculated the prevalence of 17 respiratory viruses before and after onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and compared the degree of seasonality shift with a newly developed a metric dubbed seasonal disruption index. In addition, we compared coinfection statistics prior to and after the pandemic onset, and also studied the correlation of infection counts with non-pharmaceutical interventions in the time frame from early 2020 to end of 2022. Results We found that the viral pathogens show a varying degree of seasonality disruption. It is largest among those that are known to show a highly seasonal behavior, namely Influenza and RSV, the latter having the highest seasonal disruption index. Most perennial viruses continued to appear throughout the year. Coinfections occurred before and after the pandemic; patterns before and after pandemic onset are surprisingly similar. The occurrence of most viruses is nonlinearly correlated with the degree of non-pharmaceutical interventions. Conclusion The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic had a considerable impact on the occurrence and seasonality of other respiratory viruses. While nearly all seasonality patterns were initially disrupted due to the heavy non-pharmaceutical interventions, viruses are regaining their pre-pandemic seasonality. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a5d2e5b5a23a4180b4a40f6a60df552d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1471-2458 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Public Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-a5d2e5b5a23a4180b4a40f6a60df552d2025-08-20T04:02:42ZengBMCBMC Public Health1471-24582025-08-0125111110.1186/s12889-025-23983-8Long-term impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on respiratory viruses in GermanyRalf Eggeling0Florian König1Lisa Koeppel2Laura-Inés Böhler3Michael Böhm4Norbert Schmeißer5Nico Pfeifer6Rolf Kaiser7Clinical Virology NetworkDepartment of Computer Science, University of TübingenDepartment of Computer Science, University of TübingenDepartment of Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine, Heidelberg University HospitalDepartment of Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine, Heidelberg University HospitalInstitute of Virology, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital CologneMedeora GmbHDepartment of Computer Science, University of TübingenInstitute of Virology, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital CologneAbstract Background Respiratory viral diseases are one of the greatest challenges facing our healthcare system, with them being one of the main causes of death. This has been demonstrated once again by the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in recent years. We study the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the prevalence of respiratory viruses by analysing a subset of the Clinical Virology network database, covering 2,216,198 samples tested for 18 different viral pathogens in the time span from 2010 to 2024. Methods We calculated the prevalence of 17 respiratory viruses before and after onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and compared the degree of seasonality shift with a newly developed a metric dubbed seasonal disruption index. In addition, we compared coinfection statistics prior to and after the pandemic onset, and also studied the correlation of infection counts with non-pharmaceutical interventions in the time frame from early 2020 to end of 2022. Results We found that the viral pathogens show a varying degree of seasonality disruption. It is largest among those that are known to show a highly seasonal behavior, namely Influenza and RSV, the latter having the highest seasonal disruption index. Most perennial viruses continued to appear throughout the year. Coinfections occurred before and after the pandemic; patterns before and after pandemic onset are surprisingly similar. The occurrence of most viruses is nonlinearly correlated with the degree of non-pharmaceutical interventions. Conclusion The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic had a considerable impact on the occurrence and seasonality of other respiratory viruses. While nearly all seasonality patterns were initially disrupted due to the heavy non-pharmaceutical interventions, viruses are regaining their pre-pandemic seasonality.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-23983-8Respiratory virusesSeasonalityNon-pharmaceutical interventionsSARS-CoV-2 pandemicCOVID-19Coinfections |
| spellingShingle | Ralf Eggeling Florian König Lisa Koeppel Laura-Inés Böhler Michael Böhm Norbert Schmeißer Nico Pfeifer Rolf Kaiser Clinical Virology Network Long-term impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on respiratory viruses in Germany BMC Public Health Respiratory viruses Seasonality Non-pharmaceutical interventions SARS-CoV-2 pandemic COVID-19 Coinfections |
| title | Long-term impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on respiratory viruses in Germany |
| title_full | Long-term impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on respiratory viruses in Germany |
| title_fullStr | Long-term impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on respiratory viruses in Germany |
| title_full_unstemmed | Long-term impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on respiratory viruses in Germany |
| title_short | Long-term impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on respiratory viruses in Germany |
| title_sort | long term impact of the sars cov 2 pandemic on respiratory viruses in germany |
| topic | Respiratory viruses Seasonality Non-pharmaceutical interventions SARS-CoV-2 pandemic COVID-19 Coinfections |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-23983-8 |
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