The World Health Organization (WHO), on Friday, issued recommendations for two new immunisation tools to protect infants from Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
They included a maternal vaccine, administered to pregnant women in their third trimester to protect their newborns.
The other was a long-acting antibody injection for infants, which begins to protect within a week of administration and lasts for at least five months.
Respiratory syncytial virus, also called human respiratory syncytial virus and human orthopneumovirus, is a virus that causes infections of the respiratory tract.
RSV is spread from person to person through close contact with someone who is infected from coughing and sneezing. It can also spread through direct contact, for example, if an infected person kisses a baby on the face.
People who become infected with RSV show symptoms within four to six days after the virus enter the body. Initial signs of RSV are similar to mild cold symptoms, including sneezing, runny nose, fever, cough and decrease in appetite. Very young infants may be irritable, fatigued and have breathing difficulties.
According to WHO, RSV is the leading cause of acute lower respiratory infections in children globally.
It causes around 100,000 deaths and 3.6 million hospitalisations each year among children under the age of five, while infants under six months are most at risk.
Alarmingly, 97 per cent of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, according to WHO.
Although RSV can infect people of all ages, “it is especially harmful to infants, particularly those born prematurely,” a WHO official, Kate O’Brien, said.
O’Brien added that around half of all RSV-related deaths occurred in babies younger than six months.
Considering the global burden of severe RSV illness in infants, WHO recommended that all countries adopt either the maternal vaccine or the antibody injection as part of their national immunisation strategies.
“These RSV immunisation products can transform the fight against severe RSV disease, dramatically reduce hospitalisations and deaths, and ultimately save many infant lives worldwide,” O’Brien said. (NAN)
