The United States of America approved on Wednesday, for the first time, a vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes bronchiolitis, for adults aged 60 and over, health authorities announced, reports AFP.
This approval of the Arexvy vaccine, produced by the British pharmaceutical giant GSK, “is an important public health success to prevent a potentially fatal disease”said, according to a press release, Peter Marks, responsible within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to Agerpres.
Bronchiolitis is increasing all over the world
Another respiratory virus that mainly infects young children is the syncytial virus – RSV.
“Acute bronchiolitis is increasing all over the world and it was even before the pandemic”, draws the attention of Prof. Dr. Mihai Craiu. And the child is not a miniature adult, so although he may have the same signs of the disease, the mechanisms for producing them are different: “In acute bronchiolitis produced by RSV, coughing and wheezing are not produced by the same mechanisms that produce coughing and wheezing in an adult with asthma or an elderly person with COPD – chronic obstructive pulmonary disease”.
The doctor explains how, in an adult in an asthma attack, Ventolin is applied and it works because at the level of muscle cells in his bronchi, the drug stimulates beta-adrenergic receptors type 2 (RBA2), stimulation that relaxes the bronchial muscles, disappearing the bornospasm. Whereas in a young child, these RBA2 receptors, although they exist, have a lower density and are immature, so they can be blocked or partially destroyed.
“Children who develop bronchiolitis with RSV may develop asthma in the future, but NOT BECAUSE they did not receive anti-asthma drugs when they had the acute illness, but because the immune mechanisms that the child uses to recover from bronchiolitis favor the activation of some processes with an allergic mechanism”emphasizes the pediatrician.
Studies show that the risk of being diagnosed with asthma in adulthood is ten times higher for infants hospitalized with RSV bronchiolitis compared to those with common colds.
“In conclusion, acute RSV bronchiolitis is not mechanistically similar to an asthma attack in an adult and, as such, the use of anti-asthma drugs in an infant with moderate or mild bronchiolitis, possibly sent home, is unnecessary and may have side effects adverse. It is better to prevent RSV bronchiolitis, by non-pharmacological means – hygiene, avoiding crowds with an infant – or pharmacological – anti-RSV monoclonal antibodies, than to expect, unreasonably, to cure the disease treated with ineffective drugs”, the pediatrician recommends.
2023-05-03 18:29:25
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