The importance of getting vaccinated against syncytial virus

The Spanish Society of Neonatology (SENEO), together with other scientific societies, recommends that this autumn babies should be protected against infection with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and, above all, from its consequences, namely bronchiolitis and pneumonia, because There is already a vaccine that is proven to be effective. The vaccine is free and voluntary and will be available in Castile-La Mancha.

Neonatology Society joins voice in recommending vaccines to prevent bronchiolitis and pneumonia in infants

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• The Spanish Pediatric Society warns that most people recover within a week or two, but RSV can be serious in babies, causing bronchiolitis and pneumonia.
• Castilla-La Mancha will invest more than 3.2 million euros in the supply of monoclonal antibodies for the 2023-2024 season.
• In 2022, RSV caused panic in society as a large number of newborns were admitted to intensive care units.

RSV infection is the most common cause of hospitalization in children under one year of age.

Therefore, SENEO issued recommendations for the use of the novel monoclonal antibody nirsevimab to prevent severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection during the 2023-2024 epidemic season. The full document has been published in the journal Anales de Pediatría.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is the most common cause of hospitalization in children under one year old in Spain, with serious infections requiring hospitalization particularly common in newborns and infants under 3 months of age, who fall into the following groups defined as high risk , namely premature infants, infants with chronic respiratory diseases due to premature birth, diseases affecting immunity, neuromuscular patients, Down syndrome and infants with congenital heart disease, which is also the reason why a large number of women are seen in primary schools Nursing care of lower respiratory tract infections and hospital emergencies.

In addition, they are associated with recurrent episodes of wheezing in the medium to long term, may impair respiratory function, and are associated with the development of asthma in people without a history of allergies.

background

For more than 20 years, in people at high risk of severe or very serious course due to RSV, the use of the monoclonal antibody palivizumab has been very effective in preventing these infections, but at high cost and with a short half-life, apparently as defined by the Spanish Society of Neonatology .

nirumab

The emergence of the new monoclonal antibody nirsevimab, which has a longer half-life and has been proven to be effective and safe, provides the possibility for universal passive immune prophylaxis to prevent these diseases in all healthy infants except high-risk groups. The risk of severe lower respiratory tract infections is greatest, mainly in the first year of life.

The EU approved its use on November 3, 2022, enabling its widespread use during Spain’s first epidemic season of 2023-2024.

It has also recently received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (July 17, 2023), with recommendations for use from the Spanish Ministry of Health, through an expert group from the General Directorate of Public Health, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The product’s technical sheet states that its use in healthy infants prevents severe RSV infection in the first trimester and it is recommended to follow the official instructions for use.

Taking all these arguments into account, SENEO “recommends the use of nirsevimab for prophylaxis during the next epidemic season of RSV infection (2023-2024).”