Young children in Massachusetts are getting ill with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) at an unprecedented rate for this time of year. A new vaccine developed by Pfizer to protect infants through maternal immunization and older adults could be approved by the end of the year, according to the drug company.
In an announcement on Tuesday, Pfizer claimed that an experimental RSV vaccine for pregnant women could protect newborns against severe illness for at least six months after birth and the company is seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration after submitting preliminary data on the vaccine. The vaccine would also work for adults 60 or older who are vulnerable to the virus.
“A maternal vaccine with high efficacy that can help protect infants from birth could substantially reduce the burden of severe RSV among newborns through six months of age, and, if approved by regulatory authorities, will likely have a significant impact on disease in the U.S. and globally,” said Eric A.F. Simões, M.D., in Pfizer’s announcement. He is a health expert with the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, RSV is a common respiratory virus that typically causes mild, cold-like symptoms. Most people recover in a week or two from RSV, but it can be more serious for infants and older adults. The virus is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children younger than 1 year of age in the U.S.
There is no vaccine yet to prevent RSV infection, but scientists are working hard to develop one, according to the CDC. And there is a medicine that can help protect some babies at high risk for severe RSV disease.
Pfizer’s RSV vaccine works by vaccinating pregnant mothers who then pass on immunization to their infants during their first six months of life “which has the highest burden of RSV illness in infants,” according to the company’s statement.
In the United States alone, approximately 2.1 million outpatient visits and 58,000 hospitalizations due to RSV occur each year among children younger than five years old. Worldwide, RSV results in the death of approximately 102,000 children annually, with about half of those in infants less than 6 months old and the vast majority in developing countries, according to the CDC.
This season in particular has seen a high number of RSV cases in Massachusetts and across the country as pandemic precautions, such as wearing masks and social distancing, begin to relax at schools and in society. There is a higher risk for the spreading of respiratory illnesses that haven’t been as prevalent due to COVID.
“Suddenly we have kids going back to school, parents going back to work and they’re now catching RSV and bringing it home to younger siblings and infants who really don’t have much immunity,” Dr. Phoebe Yager, medical director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Mass General for Children, told WGBH. “It’s just the perfect storm to then create a situation of smaller children and infants getting really sick.”
In Massachusetts, hospitals are sending patients out of state because there are no available intensive care unit beds.
Lawrence General Hospital had to send a patient to Albany, N.Y., two weeks ago and another to Portland, Maine, according to The Boston Globe. The pediatric intensive care unit at the Mass General for Children is full, the outlet reported at the end of September, and Boston Children’s Hospital reported high patient volume and longer wait times.
In Western Mass., Baystate Children’s Hospital in Springfield is currently seeing higher rates of respiratory illness among children than even in the middle of the winter season, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported.
The outlet cited daily figures from the hospital as being between 140 and 170 cases in young children — most of them under the age of 2. So far, cases are outpacing the more typical 100 or so seen in the winter.
