New vaccines and treatments are linked to a dramatic decline in RSV hospitalizations for babies, according to a new study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“I genuinely think that could have saved him a hospitalization.” For parents, a child’s RSV hospitalization can be a wrenching time, full of uncertainty and fear.
In these very young babies, RSV hospitalization dropped by 52%, according to RSV-Net.
A vaccine for pregnant people, Pfizer’s Abrysvo, is offered in the third trimester during RSV season, which is usually between September and January.
“Increased use of RSV prevention products during future seasons might lead to even larger reductions in RSV hospitalizations among infants.”
A recent study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports a sharp drop in hospitalizations for RSV in infants, which can be attributed to new vaccines and treatments.
This past winter marked the first RSV season in which a monoclonal antibody treatment administered in the first eight months of life and a vaccine administered during pregnancy were widely available to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Newborns younger than two months old are particularly vulnerable to RSV, which is the primary cause of hospitalization for infants in the United States.
Hospitalizations for RSV in infants younger than seven months decreased by as much as 56 percent this year compared to the RSV seasons from 2018 to 2020, prior to the Covid pandemic. Hospitalizations for newborns dropped by up to 71%.
“There was definitely less RSV this year compared to the last two to three years,” noted emergency physician Heather Auerbach, who observed that trend. “.”.
Lower levels of care were frequently required for the young children who did become ill enough to visit the emergency room, she said.
“Compared to the past two years, I believe I saw fewer critically ill children from it this year,” she stated.
There is a difference between the children simply needing some suction and oxygen and the needing to be on high flow [oxygen], on BiPap, in the PICU, or something similar, even if they become ill and end up in the hospital. “”.
Auerbach, who shared that her son was hospitalized with RSV in January 2020 at the age of three weeks, wishes that her own family could have benefited from the RSV vaccinations. After a healthy, full-term birth, he became ill.
According to Auerbach, “his breathing had just gotten much worse all of a sudden.”. His alertness decreased, and he began using his stomach muscles to breathe—two classic symptoms of RSV-related respiratory complications.
Infants are still susceptible to RSV infection even if they don’t exhibit these symptoms.
According to Auerbach, “even if they don’t have other symptoms, little babies with RSV can have periods of apnea where they stop breathing, and it can happen suddenly.”.
She and her husband, who is also a doctor, had to regularly suction away mucus after her son was admitted to the hospital and returned home.
Auerbach stated, “We were a few years too early, but I wish the shot had been around then.”. He might have avoided hospitalization if that had happened, in my honest opinion. “.”.
A child’s hospitalization for RSV can be a heartbreaking experience for parents, filled with anxiety and uncertainty. Any length of hospital stay is costly and disruptive.
“Kids get very, very sick from this” in the absence of vaccinations and preventative measures, so stopping any of that is a significant advancement, according to Auerbach.
She also questions whether the vaccinations might have been able to stop further issues later on, even for a brief while.
After his illness, her son began wheezing a few months later. It was “very early and unusual” for him to be diagnosed with asthma. According to Auerbach, her husband, and the pulmonologist who treats their son, the RSV infection was the cause.
“There is no assurance that he wouldn’t have developed [asthma] in any case. “But I don’t think he would have had it at six months,” Auerbach remarked.
The CDC’s RSV-Net, a tool for monitoring RSV hospitalizations, indicates that the peak in hospitalizations for children under one year old this year was about half of the peak during the 2023–24 season and one-third of the peak during the 2022–23 season.
Only these extremely young children experience such a sharp decline.
RSV-Net reported that hospitalization rates from RSV were higher this winter among children aged 1-4 and 5-17 than they were last winter.
“This season may have been more severe than previous seasons, as evidenced by higher RSV hospitalization rates in older children who are not eligible for RSV prevention products,” CDC spokesperson Jasmine Reed said.
Notably, hospitalization rates for infants younger than three months were half of what they had been in prior seasons. “.”.
Poorer RSV seasons tend to see a higher hospitalization rate for young infants. According to her, hospitalization rates among infants have “dropped markedly,” which suggests the vaccinations are having a positive effect.
The fact that the decline in hospitalizations is taking place even during a more severe season may indicate that the vaccinations are even more effective than the data suggest.
These patterns align with the recent CDC research. RSV hospitalizations for infants younger than eight months decreased by 43%, or 28%, according to RSV-Net and the New Vaccine Surveillance Network (NVSN).
That drop increased from 28 percent to 56 percent when the researchers took Houston out of the NVSN data because the city experienced an early RSV season before preventatives were generally accessible.
The greatest shift occurred in infants younger than two months, who are the most susceptible to RSV infection.
According to RSV-Net, hospitalization for RSV decreased by 52% in these very young infants. According to NVSN, the rate decreased by 45%; however, when Houston was taken out of the equation, the decline increased to 71%.
According to the researchers, older kids did not experience the same benefit, suggesting that the vaccinations—rather than a shift in behavior, testing, or transmission rates—are to blame for the decline.
Hospitalization rates were higher this winter than during the same periods in 2018–20 for children older than eight months, who were primarily ineligible for the preventatives.
Researchers concluded that this suggests the notable decrease in hospitalizations of young infants may be underestimated.
Babies under eight months old may be administered nirsevimab, a monoclonal antibody treatment, at birth, if they are born during the RSV season, or as winter approaches. Babies who are at high risk due to medical conditions are given it between the ages of eight and nineteen months.
Pfizer’s Abrysvo vaccine is available to expectant mothers during the third trimester of RSV season, which typically lasts from September to January. Newborns are protected for several months by those antibodies.
High vaccination and preventative treatment uptake “can lead to remarkable public health impact in protecting young babies from severe illness,” according to the study, Reed said.
Future seasons could see even greater drops in infant RSV hospitalizations if more RSV prevention products are used. “”.
