Local doctors: New RSV vaccine can help protect newborns from severe illness

A newly approved vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, better known as RSV, will give pregnant moms a chance to protect their babies from wheezing, coughing and other more serious symptoms that can land infants in the hospital.

Pfizer Inc.’s Abrysvo is the first vaccine for use during pregnancy that works to prevent lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in babies from birth through 6 months of age. It was approved Monday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“A lot of the severity for children is in that first three to six months of life,” said Dr. Richard Beigi, president of UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital. “They have a very immature immune system, and they’re just fragile. They’re brand-new.”

The vaccine next will need to receive specific Centers for Disease Control clinical guidance on how to use it most effectively. The single-dose injection also was approved earlier this year for adults over 60, as older adults and young children are most at-risk of severe disease from RSV.

Dr. Grace Ferguson, an OB-GYN with Allegheny Health Network, said the announcement of the vaccine is “huge.”

“For many other diseases, we have some option to protect ourselves and our children, but RSV has remained one of those viruses we have been unable to capture,” she said. “In this post-covid vaccine world, we are actually getting better at capturing vaccines for viruses.”

Last year, RSV contributed to a “tripledemic” of sick kids alongside flu and covid cases. Ferguson and Beigi are hopeful that the advent of this new vaccine could help lower hospitalizations during the fall flu season.

“This ability to receive a vaccination while pregnant to protect your babies while they’re most vulnerable and while they are too young to get their own vaccines is kind of what every parent wants,” Ferguson said. “Anything to keep our children healthy and out of the hospital is really a blessing.”

Most of the time, RSV brings on mild, cold-like symptoms, but it also can lead to more serious illnesses such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia. The virus impacts the lungs and breathing passages and potentially can cause severe illness or death.

“When you combine this (vaccine), potentially, with covid boosters and the seasonal flu vaccine, all of which are safe and efficacious in pregnant women, you could (have) a significant disease prevention impact, both for the mothers and also on their newborns,” Beigi said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in the U.S., an estimated 58,000 to 80,000 children younger than 5 are hospitalized because of an RSV infection annually.

With this new vaccine, which is approved for use at 32 through 36 weeks gestational age of pregnancy, infants will be better set up for good health immediately after birth.

Abrysvo is set to protect newborns through their mother receiving the vaccine in a process called maternal immunization.

Antibodies are transferred through the mother’s placenta into the baby’s bloodstream, protecting the baby before birth. Some other vaccines, including those for influenza, pertussis, tetanus and covid, can be transferred in the same way.

“As soon as they’re born and on their own in terms of fighting pathogens, they have antibodies from mom already onboard,” Beigi said.

The vaccine doesn’t ward against 100% of RSV infections, but it is effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalization at a critical time for infants, Beigi noted.

“It’s really that hospitalization and severe disease that is most devastating to babies,” he said. “(The vaccine) helps minimize the risk of babies getting really sick and requiring hospitalization.”

Distribution

Because the vaccine is awaiting CDC recommendations, hospitals cannot yet confirm when it will be available, but moms likely will receive it through their OB-GYN’s office.

“It could become part of prenatal care, just like flu and just like covid and just like pertussis and TDAP,” Beigi said. “If we’re able to get the clinical guidance documents in order and begin distributing this in the late fall, you could see an impact to neonatal disease rates. Some of this will depend on the timing.”

“RSV is a common cause of illness in children, and infants are among those at highest risk for severe disease, which can lead to hospitalization,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, in a statement Monday.

“This approval provides an option for health care providers and pregnant individuals to protect infants from this potentially life-threatening disease.”