Expert weighs in on the making of the RSV vaccine | FOX6 News Milwaukee
The vaccine could be available by August, developed by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. The vaccine was made to prevent critical cases of the virus. Research shows RSV is the highest cause for infant hospitalizations. A single dose vaccine given to pregnant women will protect infants from birth to six months old. In an effort to speed up the review process before RSV's peak season, the Food and Drug Administration is reportedly set to approve the first vaccine of its kind by late summer. Let's continue this conversation. Joining us to talk about this, Dr.
Bill Hartman, Principal Investigator for the UW Health Pediatric Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Trial. Dr. Great to see you. RSV, that is very common. And a vaccine we know has been in the works for a long time. This is big news, right? Right, so an RSV vaccine was first proposed in the 1960s. And to date, none of them have been effective in preventing RSV.
A virus that really affects both spectrums of the population. The very early, the young babies who have an underdeveloped immune system and an immature respiratory system and are elderly, of which it accounts for about 14,000 deaths and 177,000 hospitalizations every year. RSV is so common that by the time you are two years old, you will almost likely have had it. We've seen a lot of headlines this year of RSV. A lot of people had no idea what it was, even though it's so common. What has changed this year that has brought it to the forefront? Well, there's a lot of speculation that it had to do with the masks coming off and people getting rid of the social distancing that was happening during COVID. I exposed a lot more people to RSV, including the young children who hadn't been exposed to it previously.
And so this led to a spike in hospitalizations in Wisconsin and nationwide to the point where children's hospitals were asking the Biden administration for an active emergency so that we could help these kids with RSV. RSV can be really challenging for those under one. If you're a parent with a kid who's a little bit older, I have a daughter who's two, if there was a vaccine that was available, is this something that I would need to get her? Well, right now they're looking at using this RSV vaccine in pregnant women in their second and third trimester so that it can be transferred to the babies, through the placenta. The babies really need to have some sort of protection against this to prevent severe disease and hospitalization from this respiratory virus. As you get older and you develop a more mature immune system and a more mature respiratory system, as you get up to the age of two and beyond, hopefully you're able to fight this virus with your own immune system. And a vaccine may not be real necessary in that age group. Big news that that vaccine might be on the horizon very shortly here, Dr.
Bill Hartman from UW Health. Appreciate your time. Thank you.
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