El Economico – Immunization against RSV reduces hospitalizations by 70%

According to a study by the Ministry of Health, which was carried out in four hospitals in Valencia, as well as in hospitals in Murcia and Castile and Leon, immunization against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) reduced the incidence by 70%. hospitalization of minors in the Valencian Community. The findings highlight the effectiveness of the monoclonal drug used against RSV in avoiding serious cases in minors that typically lead to hospitalization. Infection with this virus is universal in childhood and is responsible for the vast majority of cases of bronchiolitis in infants, other illnesses such as persistent wheezing or pneumonia, or contributes to infection by other pathogens.

As explained by the Director General of the Department of Public Health, Ruth Uso, “In the Valencian Community, we started immunization against RSV in October last year, and to date 28,680 boys and girls have been treated with a monoclonal drug that protects against this respiratory virus.”. In this sense, the Director General indicated that in the Valencian Community “We are going to continue to work on this immunization campaign to achieve maximum coverage and protect minors from possible serious cases of RSV.”. For this reason, he reminded his parents “The importance this treatment has for the little ones. Actually, this is confirmed by the numbers: the number of minors hospitalized for this pathology has decreased significantly..

Currently in the Valencian Community, the RSV immunization campaign targets boys and girls born on or after 1 April 2023 and will continue until they are born on 31 March, as well as children under two years of age years who suffer from a certain risk. pathology.

In terms of coverage achieved, in the group of minors born between April and September who are immunized in health centers, the coverage is 86.78% in the Valencian Community. By province, coverage for this age group is 86.01% in Alicante, 87.51% in Castellon and 87.17% in Valencia. On the other hand, the immunization of births since October, which is carried out in maternity wards of hospitals, currently reaches a coverage of 92.92% in the Valencian Community. By province, the coverage of these minors is 92.55% in Alicante, 92.18% in Castellon and 93.34% in Valencia.

This study, published in the journal ECDC Eurosurveillance, involved the General Directorate of Public Health of the Ministry of Health, the Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of the Valencian Community (Fisabio), the Director General of the Castellón Hospital, the Doctor Peseta University Hospital, the La Fe University Hospital and the Marina Baixa Hospital.

Vaccine researcher Fisabio and project coordinator Alejandro Orrico stressed the importance of presenting this data worldwide in such a short time frame. “We worked around the clock to be able to offer them to the scientific community so they could guide public health decisions in other countries. Collaboration between autonomous communities and support from health authorities played a key role in achieving the required sample size in record time to provide such estimates.explained.

Currently, RSV infection is a very important cause of disease, which is more common in minors and manifests itself mainly in the winter months. Therefore, it is extremely important to prevent this.