First FDA-approved RSV vaccine designed for the elderly, not infants

FDA approves first respiratory syncytial virus vaccine for the elderly

The FDA has approved the first vaccine against the highly contagious respiratory virus RSV. However, this vaccine is not for infants. Designed for the elderly. FOX 5 Medical Team’s girlfriend Beth Galvin explains why this age group was first on the list.

Atlanta – Arexvy, the first FDA-approved vaccine against RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus), is designed for people over the age of 60.

And if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccine Expert Panel recommends it next month, it could be available in time for the fall/winter RSV season.

Bernie Graham, senior adviser for global health equity at Morehouse College of Medicine, says that for school-aged children and adults, respiratory syncytial virus is usually like a bad cold.

“RSV infections are very common,” says Graham. “We are infected by the age of two, usually by the age of one, and have repeated infections throughout life.”

Graham said we hear a lot about respiratory syncytial virus in infants and young children, but it’s also a threat to older people.

“As we age and become infected, older people, especially those who are frail, often become ill,” Graham said. “So this is especially a problem in places like nursing homes and assisted living.”

Infants, young children, and people over the age of 65 are most at risk of RSV-associated lower respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia and bronchiolitis.

The CDC estimates that 60,000 to 160,000 seniors are hospitalized with RSV and 6,000 to 10,000 die from the virus each year in the United States.

This GlaxoSmithKline image shows two vials of Arexvy, an RSV vaccine recently approved by the US FDA.

In ongoing clinical trials involving approximately 25,000 adults, GlaxoSmithKline’s Alexbee reduced the risk of lower respiratory tract infections by 83 percent and the risk of severe LRTIs by 94 percent.

The most commonly reported side effects were injection site pain, fatigue, myalgia, headache, and joint stiffness/pain.

Graham, who has spent decades researching RSV vaccines at the National Institutes of Health, says the early RSV vaccines had problems.

One, administered to young children in the 1960s, actually increased the risk of serious illness and hospitalization and was associated with the deaths of two children.

“The problem is, they didn’t know enough about the virus, the proteins on it, and the target of the vaccine to know what would actually happen,” he said.

Now that researchers know how to target RSV’s structural vulnerabilities, an RSV vaccine for pregnant women and an antibody treatment for newborns could soon be a reality, Graham said. Both are to protect six-month-old babies whose lungs are still developing and vulnerable.

But Graham said there is still a need for vaccines for young children who are still at risk of serious complications from RSV.

“There’s nothing yet to protect children from six months to five years old, and it’s still being researched,” Graham said. “It’s very important to try to finish that part.”

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