All the children under two years old are infected at some point by the respiratory syncytial virus (VRS), one of the many respiratory viruses that surround the little ones. The problem is that getting infected with RSV, something that is very easy, does not have the same consequences for all babies. They can pass it off as a simple cold, but it can also degenerate into bronchiolitis, an inflammation of the smallest channels in the lungs and that’s where the problems begin. Babies, especially younger ones, they end up getting tired because they can’t breathe and they need to be admitted to the hospital or even the ICU to receive oxygen. On rare occasions, they do not overcome the disease because there is really no specific treatment.
Respiratory infections increase among children after returning to school
These most serious cases, which occur every year (and as evidenced by the collapse that occurred last year in the Valencian pediatric ICUs), are the ones that we want to avoid this fall-winter with the new immunization campaign that is going to be launched in the Valencian Community (and in the rest of Spain). The objective is to protect the most vulnerable from bronchiolitis starting this October and that hospital admissions and damages that may be avoidable can be avoided. According to the Ministry of Health, only last year There were 1,700 children who had to enter.
It is the first year that the Public Health Commission has advised immunizing all children up to six months of age against RSV with a monoclonal antibody and not only those at risk as has been done until now. In the C. Valenciana this will mean going from protecting about 1,000 babies to doing so with 36,000. The date marked on the calendar is next October 1 and the Valencian health centers and hospitals have already received the instructions for this first campaign.
Those at risk and the smallest, first
Thus, according to the document released this week by the Ministry of Health, and to which this newspaper has had access, the health centers andThey will start giving appointments starting next Monday, October 2 and they will have a marked order. The first to receive the vaccine will be children under 2 years old who are at risk (who were born prematurely, with severe immunosuppression, who have heart, bronchopulmonary or congenital diseases, Down syndrome…). Everyone will have to receive the jab before October.
For healthy babies, all those born since April 1 of this year will be called, that is up to babies who are 6 months old next October 1, but also with an order of prioritization. QThe little ones will go first “considering that the risk is higher the younger the child is,” they point out from the department.
Pediatric ICUs are on the limit as bronchiolitis increases
Newborns in maternity hospitals
Those born from that Sunday, October 1 and until March 31, 2024 will be able get immunized before leaving the hospitalbetter if it is in their first or second day of life because, the younger they are, the more serious the infection can be.
The objective is to have the infants who are most likely to have an episode of bronchiolitis covered as soon as possible, preferably in the month of October because in previous years the pico of the disease has arrived in November or early December as happened last year.
An antibody therapy
The drug that the children will receive is not a vaccine as such but an antibody therapy: nirsevimab. That is, children do not receive a part of the virus or the attenuated virus as in a vaccine so that the body recognizes it and generates its own antibodies, but rather, in this puncture, the antibodies that must fight the virus are directly administered.
“It is not something new, because at-risk children have been receiving antibody therapy since 1998, but it is a cheaper drug, with higher efficacy and longer-lasting protection,” explains the Valencian pediatrician and vaccine researcher at the Foundation. Fisabio, María Garcés-Sánchez.
“It can change the scenario of bronchiolitis”
Professionals hope that this immunization will represent a before and after “a change of scenery” because, until now, bronchiolitis “has never had a specific treatment that worked,” he points out, and now with this therapy, there is a possibility to prevent it. The president of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, the Valencian, is of the same opinion. Luis Blesa. “The prospects are very good. We have high hopes and we hope that the campaign works because it represents a great effort and can prevent deaths and problems in children,” he explains.
The keys to the immunization campaign
What is RSV?It is a respiratory virus that affects 90% of children under two years of age and is behind 80% of cases of bronchiolitis, a disease that attacks the lungs and makes it difficult for children to breathe. The smaller, the more serious it can be. Last year it generated 1,700 hospitalizations of children, most of them healthy. Antibody therapyThe drug that children will receive is not a vaccine as such but a therapy with monoclonal antibodies: nirsevimab. That is, children do not receive a part of the virus or the attenuated virus as in a vaccine so that the body recognizes it and generates its own antibodies, but rather, in this puncture, the antibodies that must fight the virus are directly administered. Since 1998, this therapy has been used with at-risk babies up to two years old, this year is the first that it is extended to all babies up to 6 months old, 36,000 in total in C. Valenciana.Who will be immunized?The campaign has included children under 2 years of age who are at risk (premature, with severe immunosuppression, with heart problems, bronchopulmonary or congenital diseases, Down syndrome…) and who in C.Valenciana are close of a thousand, but also to children up to 6 months. Those born between April 1, 2023 and September 30, 2023 will receive the jab at their health center in order from youngest to oldest. Those born from October to March 31, 2024 will receive the puncture as soon as they are born, 48 hours later at the latest, because they are at greater risk.When does it start?In hospitals it will begin on October 1st with those born that day. In health centers, pediatricians are ordered to start giving appointments as of Monday, October 2, but with the intention that at-risk babies and the youngest ones are protected that same month in the event of infections arriving in November.
2023-09-21 05:00:49
#vaccine #bronchiolitis #atrisk #babies #youngest
