What is the mortality rate of RSV in infants?

Survival rate of RSV in infants In healthy children, the reported mortality rate is about 0.5 to 1.7 percent. In children with suppressed immunity, the mortality rate is higher (about 60 percent).

How many babies die from RSV in the US?

Each year in the United States, RSV leads to on average approximately 58,000 hospitalizations1 with 100-500 deaths among children younger than 5 years old2 and 177,000 hospitalizations with 14,000 deaths among adults aged 65 years or older.

How lethal is RSV?

But for some, RSV can be severe and even life threatening. Severe RSV can be unprredictable. In fact, every year an estimated 58,000 children five and under are hospitalized and RSV is the leading cause of hospitalization in all infants.

Can RSV cause death in infants?

For most children, an initial RSV infection normally occurred within the first 2 years of life. In infants less than 1 year of age and with lower respiratory infection, up to 80\% are due to RSV [1]. In most cases, the virus is not fatal.

What is RSV and how does it affect babies?

What is respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children? RSVis a viral illness that causes symptoms such as trouble breathing. It’s the most common cause of inflammation of the small airways in the lungs (bronchiolitis) and pneumonia in babies.

Why is there not a vaccine for RSV?

However, unfortunately there is no licensed vaccine available so far. This is partly due to disastrous outcome of a clinical trial of formalin-inactivated RSV (FI-RSV) in children in 1960s; leading to enhanced respiratory disease upon natural infection.

What percentage of babies are hospitalized for RSV?

The average RSV hospitalization rate was 5.2 per 1000 children <24 months old. The highest age-specific rate was in infants 1 month old (25.9 per 1000 children). Infants ≤ 2 months of age, who comprised 44\% of RSV-hospitalized children, had a hospitalization rate of 17.9 per 1000 children.

Is there a vaccination for RSV?

While there’s no RSV vaccine yet, there is an approved medication called palivizumab (brand name Synagis) that is used to help protect premature infants and young children with certain heart and lung conditions. Palivizumab is given as a series of monthly injections during RSV season.

What happens if my baby has RSV?

For most babies and young children, the infection causes nothing more than a cold. But for a small percentage, infection with RSV can lead to serious, sometimes life-threatening problems such as pneumonia or bronchiolitis, an inflammation of the small airways of the lungs.

Does RSV have long term effects?

In addition to the acute burden of RSV, epidemiological data suggest that RSV infection in the first 3 years of life is associated with long-term respiratory morbidity, such as recurrent wheezing and asthma, decreased lung function, and possibly allergic sensitization [10–12].