This is a vaccine to prevent bronchiolitis in the womb.

Pfizer’s new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Abrysvo is now available for prescription in Spain..

This vaccine, which has been shown to reduce lower respiratory tract disease caused by this pathogen, is indicated to protect infants under six months of age by immunizing their mothers, as well as adults over 60 years of age.

Currently the vaccine Funded only in case of pregnant women.and is awaiting recommendations from the Ministry of Health and Autonomous Communities for its inclusion in vaccination schedules. They will have to factor the vaccine into those decisions. GSK for the elderly, Areksviand nirsevimab (Bayfortus), monoclonal antibody Sanofi for passive immunization of infants.

BABIES

RSV, nicknamed during the pandemic children covidis the leading cause of bronchiolitis and causes between 7,000 and 14,000 hospitalizations in infants in Spain each year.

Maria GarcesMember of the Vaccine Advisory Committee Spanish Association of Pediatricians, recalled that RSV infection does not require treatment and that, thanks to support measures such as oxygen therapy, it does not cause the high mortality rate in Spain that it causes in developing regions. It is not for nothing, according to the expert, that RSV is the second cause of death in children under one year of age in the world after malaria.

In any case, he warns, symptoms of bronchiolitis in infants increase the risk of developing pneumonia in the short term and also predispose them to develop asthma-like symptoms of bronchial hyperresponsiveness before age 5.

Abrysvo This is a one-shot vaccine that pregnant women need to receive between 24 and 36 weeks. According to Garces, who called its availability “very good news,” the pertussis experience supports the maternal immunization strategy. protect your baby from infectious diseases.

Additionally, he pointed out that there is already real-world data from its use in the United States that shows that “it produces slight reactogenicity in women and when monitoring children, it is also very safe.

ALSO FOR THE POPULATION OVER 60 YEARS OLD

The vaccine is also approved for single doses in adults, although Pfizer is investigating whether they will be needed. booster dose. “The first data show stable protection results in the first two years: in the first – about 89%, in the second – 79%,” he noted. Francisco Mesafrom the company’s medical department.

Older people are more vulnerable to infectious diseases due to aging immunity and a greater presence of concomitant diseases, he recalled. Angel Gil, professor of preventive medicine and public health at the Rey Juan Carlos University. In this sense, he pointed out that “as with influenza or covid, the RSV vaccine does not prevent human infectionbut he went to the hospital and died.”

In the case of older people, he explains that the virus poses a similar burden as influenza in primary care and hospitals, but “the case fatality rate is slightly higher, probably because we don’t diagnose it early and don’t think about it ” In particular, RSV causes Spain has about 6,000 deaths annually, according to their estimates. “Its impact on mortality and hospitalization in older adults is expected to be greater than 95%.”