  Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of acute lower
respiratory tract infection worldwide, resulting in approximately sixty
thousand annual hospitalizations of <5-year-olds in the United States alone and
three million annual hospitalizations globally. The development of over 40
vaccines and immunoprophylactic interventions targeting RSV has the potential
to significantly reduce the disease burden from RSV infection in the near
future. In the context of RSV, a highly contagious pathogen, dynamic
transmission models (DTMs) are valuable tools in the evaluation and comparison
of the effectiveness of different interventions. This review, the first of its
kind for RSV DTMs, provides a valuable foundation for future modelling efforts
and highlights important gaps in our understanding of RSV epidemics.
Specifically, we have searched the literature using Web of Science, Scopus,
Embase, and PubMed to identify all published manuscripts reporting the
development of DTMs focused on the population transmission of RSV. We reviewed
the resulting studies and summarized the structure, parameterization, and
results of the models developed therein. We anticipate that future RSV DTMs,
combined with cost-effectiveness evaluations, will play a significant role in
shaping decision making in the development and implementation of intervention
programs.
