RSV infections jump 800% in New Brunswick over last year

Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, infections are up at least 800 per cent in New Brunswick, compared to last year, and the province is considering making it a reportable disease as cases continue to surge above expected levels among children across the country.

Forty-five New Brunswickers have tested positive for RSV, as of Nov. 12, based on data from the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre laboratory in Moncton alone, the latest figures posted by the Public Health Agency of Canada show.

That's up from five positive cases as of the same time last year, according to the national respiratory virus report.

Of this year's 45 cases, 14 — more than 30 per cent — were during the week ending Nov. 12, known as week 45, up from zero that week in 2021-22.

The rise in RSV, which infects the lungs and respiratory tract, comes as the province faces an increase in the flu, on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, commonly referred to as a triple threat, or tridemic, adding further strain on the health-care system.

Although the province inputs RSV test data from the Dumont lab into the national surveillance system weekly, it's not a reportable disease in New Brunswick, unlike some other provinces.

That means it is not monitored or communicated to the public in the same way a reportable disease, such as COVID- 19 or the flu, with weekly reports, according to Department of Health spokesperson Adam Bowie.

If RSV was a reportable disease under the Public Health Act, "laboratory staff from all regional hospitals would have to submit the result to the regional public health team, where additional information would be collected about each case for analysis," he said in an emailed statement.

New Brunswick does not have RSV as a reportable disease, "in large part because … it is a very common infection that affects pretty well all children by the age of two," Dr. Yves Léger, the acting chief medical officer of health, told reporters Friday.

"But that act gets revised regularly and we'll certainly be looking at that in the near future to see if we should be considering adding that in," he said.

Adding to the list of diseases and events that are reportable in New Brunswick under the Public Health Act requires a regulatory amendment, said the department spokesperson.

The province recently added monkeypox to the list.

"Where an emergent public health emergency exists, the Public Health Act also provides authority for the minister or chief medical officer of health to make an order declaring a disease a notifiable disease," Bowie said.

In adults and older, healthy children, RSV symptoms are typically mild and cold-like, such as runny nose, cough and fever.