RSV vaccination during pregnancy may protect young children

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The vaccine has proven effective and well tolerated in a clinical trial, the Berlin Charité reported on Thursday. Up to 81 percent of children are reliably protected against a serious course of illness in their first six months of life.

More RSV infections last winter

RSV is a global pathogen that can cause serious respiratory diseases. Infection can be especially dangerous for newborns and babies. Last winter in Germany, more newborns and babies than usual had to be treated in acute respiratory diseases clinics. Experts suspect a catch-up effect after the corona pandemic, in which relatively few children came into contact with RSV. So far, the disease can only be treated symptomatically.

Antibodies are passed on to the child

An international vaccination study involving Charité and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine conducted in 18 countries between 2020-2022 has now examined the efficacy of a first vaccine candidate. Nearly 3700 study participants received the vaccine as an injection during the second or third trimester of pregnancy, with a similarly large comparison group receiving a placebo, that is, an injection without the vaccine.

When vaccinated during pregnancy, the expectant mother produces antibodies that pass through the placenta to the unborn baby. After birth, the children in the study were regularly examined and tested for the RS virus for a period of one to two years, as well as when they had signs of respiratory illness.

In more than 80 percent of children, a severe course of RSV disease in the first three months of life could have been prevented by immunizing the mother during pregnancy, with more than two-thirds still protected at six months of age. The vaccine has been submitted to European and US drug regulatory authorities for approval.

(AFP)

Source : Blick