Diagnosis of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Adults Substantially Increases When Adding Sputum, Saliva, and Serology Testing to Nasopharyngeal Swab RT-PCR.

Diagnosis of RSV in adults was several-fold greater when additional specimen types were added to NP swab, even with a relatively low percentage of subjects with sputum and serology results available. Hospitalized RSV ARI burden estimates in adults based solely on NP swab RT-PCR should be adjusted for underestimation.