Doctors across the United States will likely soon have two options to protect the youngest humans from RSV.
On August 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first RSV vaccine for pregnant people. By vaccinating individuals before they give birth — between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy — immune defenses sparked by the vaccine are transferred to newborns for protection during their first months of life (SN: 4/27/23).
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.
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