October 2025

Summary:

• • • Rhinoviruses show clear dominance in October 2025 with an overall positivity rate of 45% among hospitalized patients
    • Austria-wide sentinel surveillance confirms high rhinovirus proportion of 63% in calendar week 43
    • Particularly vulnerable groups include infants, young children, newborns, elderly individuals, and immunosuppressed persons
    • Rhinoviruses can cause severe disease courses and exacerbations of chronic conditions such as asthma and COPD
    • Respiratory and gastro dashboards are updated weekly and freely available to submitters

Autumn has begun – and with it, the activity of respiratory viruses is increasing significantly once again. Currently, our respiratory dashboard shows a clear dominance of rhinoviruses.

In our analysis of multiplex PCR results from hospitalized patients in October, the overall positivity rate is 45%, with rhinoviruses accounting for the largest proportion (https://virologie.i-med.ac.at/epidemiological-insights/). The Austria-wide sentinel surveillance at the Center for Virology at the Medical University of Vienna also shows a clear dominance of rhinoviruses in CW 43 with a high proportion of 63% (https://viro.meduniwien.ac.at/forschung/virus-epidemiologie-2/ueberwachung-der-zirkulation-respiratorischer-viren-in-oesterreich/).

Although rhinoviruses are classically associated with mild upper respiratory tract infections, our data show that they can also contribute to more severe disease courses – particularly in infants, young children, and newborns. In elderly individuals as well as in persons with immunosuppression or other chronic underlying conditions, rhinoviruses can lead to pronounced clinical presentations and exacerbation of the primary disease (e.g., asthma, COPD).

We would like to point out that our Respiratory Dashboard reflects trends among hospitalized patients, as multiplex PCR requests for respiratory pathogens predominantly originate from the inpatient sector. The dashboard is updated weekly and is freely available to you as a submitter. Please also take a look at our Gastro Dashboard, which displays the current infection trends of the most important gastrointestinal viruses (https://virologie.i-med.ac.at/epidemiological-insights/).