First vaccine targeting RSV wins FDA approval. More are coming.

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Excerpt:

"U.S. regulators Wednesday approved the first vaccine to prevent the respiratory ailment RSV, a decision that marks a turning point in the six-decade-long quest to protect vulnerable people against the virus.

A shot developed by pharmaceutical giant GSK to protect older adults against the respiratory syncytial virus is the first to get a greenlight from the Food and Drug Administration. A Pfizer vaccine is following close behind and is under consideration for older adults and for pregnant people as a maternal vaccination that would protect newborn children. A monoclonal antibody treatment for babies, developed by Sanofi and AstraZeneca to offer vaccine-like protection during the winter RSV season, is also under consideration.

The progress arrives at a rare time of public awareness about the wintertime respiratory disease, after last year’s terrible RSV season crushed children’s hospitals across the country. For most healthy people, RSV is just another seasonal cold, but each year in the United States it fills pediatric intensive care units with babies gasping for air and sends more than 60,000 older adults to the hospital.

“Older adults, in particular those with underlying health conditions, such as heart or lung disease or weakened immune systems, are at high risk for severe disease caused by RSV,” Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. “Today’s approval of the first RSV vaccine is an important public health achievement to prevent a disease which can be life-threatening.”

Much more in this very interesting read:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/05/03/rsv-vaccine-adults/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert