RESCEU outputs will provide sustainable long-term impact on RSV disease burden and thus make a significant contribution to improving health and wellbeing in Europe. RESCEU will form the platform for upcoming future actions on RSV and even other pathogens which are identified as a priority for action in Europe.
RESCEU´s national and regional level estimates for RSV disease burden in children and adults, and cost effectiveness analysis for RSV immunisation products (vaccines and monoclonals) in young children in a range of scenarios are currently being used by NITAGs to inform the decisions for the introduction of novel RSV vaccines/monoclonals in young children and RSV vaccines in older adults in winter 2023/24 and beyond. The RSV burden data generated by RESCEU will serve as a baseline to help assess future vaccine effectiveness in the next 3 to 5 years. RESCEU have developed two sets of recommendations on RSV surveillance strategies in Europe based on EU wide consultations in 2019 and 2021 and these are now being used by WHO and ECDC to develop recommendations for integrated surveillance for key respiratory viruses (e.g. GISRS plus) that will include influenza, SARS CoV 2 and RSV. RESCEU partners have worked with the WHO to develop and operationalise RSV surveillance pilot in 25 countries that are likely to be early adopters of an RSV vaccine. Also, in August 2022, following the publication of the ECDC/WHO operational considerations for integrated surveillance of respiratory viruses and the imminent approval of RSV vaccines, the ECDC has recommended to the European Commission that RSV be included within the list of notifiable diseases for Europe. This is an important achievement and makes the case for RSV surveillance in EuropeAslo
The rich data and biobank generated by RESCEU have not only enabled us to address the research questions laid out at beginning of the project, A but also train next generation of researchers in the beneficiary countries. These data and biobank will continue to be utilised to answer research questions in the successor PROMISE project and are also likely to be used by the wider scientific community to answer research questions beyond those initially proposed in the Grant Agreement. The biomarkers identified within RESCEU WP5 have the potential to be used in clinical as well as research settings for vaccine or therapeutic clinical trials. These biomarkers would need to be validated in future studies. The RESCEU biobank samples and RESCEU data are being archived and will be made available (outwith the consortium) upon request after the embargo period is over. In collaboration with clinical societies as well as national public health institutes, we have summarised the RSV prevention and treatment guidelines in EU countries and these have been published in JID supplement on RSV. Through engagement with scientific community, general public, patients and policy makers, RESCEU partners have significantly raise awareness of RSV burden and advocated the need for introduction of novel immunisations and antivirals both in Europe and worldwide at the earliest. The clinical study sites in RESCEU are now part of several trial networks for respiratory pathogens.
