When will a vaccine for RSV be available in the US?

The person is Grace Wade.

Hospitals across the US have been overwhelmed by a surge in cases of respiratory syncytial virus. Two vaccines for the virus could be available in the country as early as next year.

Robert Frenck at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center says that most people catch the disease by their 2nd birthday. It can be life threatening for children under the age of 5, older adults and people who are immune compromised. Over one hundred thousand people die each year from the disease.

Frenck says that there is no vaccine for the disease. That might change soon.

Pfizer said on Tuesday that it will submit a vaccine for approval from the FDA by the end of the year. People give the vaccine to their unborn child.

In a phase III trial, the vaccine was found to be effective in preventing severe infections in infants under 90 days old, and it remained effective through a child's first six months of life.

It usually takes multiple vaccine doses and a long time for a young child to produce an adequate number of antibodies. She says the vaccine works the day the baby is born.

The FDA will review the vaccine for older adults by the end of the year. The vaccine was effective in preventing the disease in a trial for older people.

The hospitalisation rate forRSV in the US was double what it was in October of last year. Canada and the UK are both seeing cases increase.

Read more: Covid-19 lockdown has left young children vulnerable to some illnesses

Frenck says that the incidence of the disease spikes in the winter. The past two years have seen a decrease in the number of children contracting the disease.

The lifting of such measures in the US may be to blame for the rising cases this year. Children under 2 or 3 are coming into the hospital instead of the older ones.

Since the 1960s, researchers have been working on a vaccine for the disease. The method of inoculating children with a whole, inactive version of the virus that couldn't replicate in the body was the first attempt.

The strong immune reaction produced by this resulted in many children falling ill and some even dying from the disease.

About 10 years ago, researchers discovered a specificProtein on theRSV virus, called the prefusionProtein, which is similar to the spikeProtein on the covid-19 virus The immune response to a vaccine is robust but not dangerous.

The best way to protect yourself and your child from catching the disease is to wash your hands frequently, because the vaccine won't be available until next year.

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