Doctors across the United States will likely soon have two options to protect the youngest humans from RSV.
RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, causes respiratory tract disease and is the leading cause of hospitalization in infants in the United States. Each year, the virus puts an estimated 58,000 to 80,000 kids younger than 5 in the hospital. The vaccine joins the antibody treatment Beyfortus (nirsevimab), which was also recently approved by the FDA, as another preventive option for defending against the virus.
“It’s great that we have new tools to protect kids,” says pediatric infectious diseases physician and virologist Betsy Herold.
In a trial of approximately 7,000 pregnant people, fewer babies born to individuals given the Pfizer-made vaccine became severely ill, compared with babies whose parents received a placebo.
2023-08-25 11:43:53
Original from www.sciencenews.org