Surveillance of hospitalisations with laboratory-confirmed respiratory infections using the national laboratory database, Norway, 2022-2024

Including samples for ten respiratory pathogens, we studied whether hospitalisations with laboratory-confirmed respiratory infections could be monitored using the Norwegian national laboratory database. We used requisitioner information to define samples as obtained from hospitalised or non-hospitalised patients and assessed the performance against the Norwegian Patient Registry. With sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of 93%, 84%, 86% and 92%, respectively, the trends of weekly number of samples positive for SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus were similar to those of admissions in the Norwegian surveillance of severe acute respiratory infections. When linkage of microbiological data with clinical information is not possible, trends of hospitalisations with respiratory infections can be monitored using the Norwegian laboratory database alone.