RSV illness develops in approximately 3 to 7% of healthy older adults in the United States and Europe each year,

 

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is a common cause of lower respiratory tract illness worldwide, with a risk of severe illness among infants, young children, and older adults. 

The risk of severe RSV disease increases among older adults who are frail or have coexisting conditions. RSV illness develops in approximately 3 to 7% of healthy older adults in the United States and Europe each year, with an estimated 177,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths each year in the United States.

The severity of illness among older adults who are hospitalized with RSV disease is substantial; 18% are admitted to an intensive care unit, 31% receive home health services at discharge, and 26% die within 1 year after admission. The diagnosis of RSV infection in adults is probably underestimated because, unlike the case with influenza, the reporting of RSV infections is not required by law in most jurisdictions, and testing, which is not routinely performed, may be unreliable. RSV shedding also occurs at higher levels and for a longer duration in older adults than in younger adults. Taken together, the overall RSV disease burden in older adults is high, and a vaccine to protect this population from RSV-associated lower respiratory tract illness is an unmet medical need.

Pfizer’s used a stabilized form of the prefusion F protein that RSV uses to enter human cells, and the NIH research showed that antibodies to this prefusion protein elicited a strong anti-viral immune response.  The Pfizer bivalent vaccine is composed of equal amounts of recombinant RSV prefusion F from subgroups A and B.

Pfizer immunized 17,215 people with RSVpreF vaccine and 17,000 people got a placebo.

RSV-associated lower respiratory tract illness occurred in 11 participants in the vaccine group and 33 participants in the placebo group.  Vaccine efficacy was 66.7%;

The incidence of local reactions was higher with vaccine (12%) than with placebo (7%); the incidences of systemic events were similar (27% and 26%, respectively). Serious adverse events were reported in 2.3% of participants in each group through the data-cutoff date.  this is an MRNA vaccine. 

Pfizer is not the only company working on a vaccine.  Moderna, one of the companies that developed a Covid vaccine, also developed and tested a MRNA vaccine for RSV.  In one study it was said to be 83.7% effective in preventing RSV pneumonia and bronchitis, and it had few worrisome side effects.  We don’t know how long either vaccine remains active.      

 

 

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-announces-positive-top-line-data-phase-3-global

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2213836?query=featured_home

 

 

 

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