RSV infections

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(Bild: Jasmin Merdan - stock.adobe.com)

Whether with active vaccination of pregnant women or in future with a type of passive immunization with monoclonal antibodies, the main aim is to protect babies from serious illnesses caused by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). According to estimates, around 54,600 children in Austria fall ill every year. There is also likely to be a link to asthma.

Almost no child escapes an RSV infection. According to scientific studies, 97 percent become infected in the first two years of life. Every year, around 1,100 children in Austria have to be treated in hospital for this reason. The youngest children are particularly affected. Around half of hospitalized children are less than three months old. Around a quarter are less than six months old.

According to an analysis of the scientific literature, 1.2 percent of premature babies admitted to hospital due to RSV, 5.2 percent of children with congenital heart defects and 4.1 percent of children with certain chronic lung diseases die. One in 500 children who have to be hospitalized due to RSV and have no additional risk factors also die.

Connection with asthma
What is feared above all is bronchiolitis. This leads to hyperinflation of the smallest airways. Studies show that babies who have suffered such RSV bronchiolitis are more likely to develop asthma in early childhood.

A link between RSV or rhinovirus infections and asthma was also recently confirmed in a study by French and Austrian scientists: Among 530 children with a mean age of 11.1 years and among 1,241 adults with a mean age of 43.4 years, the children showed an association between ever having mild to severe asthma and the presence of specific antibodies against certain rhinoviruses and against RSV in the blood (Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: Global; doi: 10.1016/j.jacig.2024.100342).