A new study raises the alarm about children’s deaths from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), especially in low- and middle-income countries. According to what was published by the University of Edinburgh on The Lancet In 2019, more than 100,000 children under five died of RSV, half of whom were under six months. Acute lower respiratory tract infection caused by respiratory syncytial virus is responsible for approximately 3.6 million hospital admissions each year.
This research is the first to examine the burden of the disease in terms of lives by dividing it into age groups: in 2019 there were over 45,000 deaths in infants under the age of six months, with 1.4 million hospital admissions. From some updated estimates to date it has emerged that children aged six months and over are particularly vulnerable also due to the relaxation of restrictions for Covid and the greater ease of circulation of the virus.
Furthermore, the majority of children born in the last two years, always in lockdown, have never been exposed to RSV and have no antibodies against this virus. The age group between 28 days and six months remains the one with the highest mortality rate.
For children under the age of five, there were 3.6 million hospital admissions, 26,300 hospital deaths and 101,400 overall deaths attributable to RSV. The results of the study can help identify the most fragile groups to prioritize in case of vaccine.
97% of childhood deaths from respiratory syncytial virus occur in low- and middle-income countries. Professor Xin Wang Medical University of Nanjing, China, co-author of the study, said three-quarters of deaths occur outside of hospital facilities, and in poorer countries the percentage is as high as 80 percent. Treatments are still a mirage in certain areas of the world and often within communities the identification of the case comes too late. Effective immunization programs at affordable prices are needed for this.
We have been working for some time to identify specific drugs and vaccines to combat RSV. A study was recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine where researchers talk about protection lasting about a year thanks to an injection of monoclonal antibodies, which prevent infection in babies as young as a few weeks.
A work carried out by the University of California and published in the Journal of Virology has instead shown that the bioengineered protein vaccine against RSV evokes a protective immune response. Another viable path that is giving good results is that of vaccinating the mother during pregnancy. Thus, through the placenta, neutralizing antibody responses also reach the fetus.