At least 58,000 childern younger than 5 years old are hospitalized each year with RSV infections. A Pfizer vaccine given to pregnant people could help protect their infants from severe RSV illness.
After more than five decades of trying, the drug industry is on the verge of providing effective immunizations against the respiratory syncytial virus, which has put an estimated 90,000 U.S. infants and small children in the hospital since the start of October.
The main reason the surge is ebbing now, pandemic experts suspect, is the significant immunity many people in the U.S. have acquired from prior infections and COVID vaccinations many received.
The illness sends tens of thousands of babies to the hospital each year. If approved, the new injection would be the first broadly available prevention tool.
RSV and the flu appear to be receding in the U.S., but COVID is on the rise, new data suggests, driven by holiday gatherings and an even more transmissible omicron subvariant that has become dominant.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say 56% of Georgians are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But only a quarter got the updated variant-targeting shots this flu season.
Pediatric cases of RSV and flu have sent families crowding into ERs, as health systems struggle with staff shortages. In Michigan, only 9 out of more than 130 hospitals have a pediatric ICU.
Makers of products like Children's Tylenol say they're trying to keep up with big demand as RSV, flu, and COVID spread. But medical experts note that kids' fevers don't always call for medicine.
As the holiday approaches, infectious disease specialists are bracing for the possibility that big family get-togethers and travel will propel the spread of RSV, flu and COVID-19.
Concerns over high cases of two common respiratory viruses have doctors encouraging vaccinations and precautionary measures leading into the holiday season. Doctors are blaming high case rates on “immunity debt.”
Doctors say they are seeing an unprecedented number of cases. How concerned should parents be? Why are young children so vulnerable? What's causing this year's outbreak? We offer some answers.
