NOS News•
Today, for the first time, babies are vaccinated against the respiratory syncytial virus, better known as the RS virus. RS causes respiratory infections and especially babies can get seriously ill and even die. Youth and pediatricians expect to prevent a lot of suffering from this year.
Worldwide, the disease after malaria is the most important cause of death for infants. In the Netherlands, deaths are rare, but between 1500 and 3000 children with RS end up in the hospital every year. About 150 of them end up in the Intensive Care, which therefore becomes overloaded every fall and winter.
No vaccination but immunization
It is not uncommon for hospitals in Germany and Belgium to assist in order to receive these children or that planable operations are forced to be postponed in other children. But these annual emergency situations should now be much less common.
The puncture, called Nirsevimab, is not a vaccination but an immunization. That means that the antibodies against the virus are already in the puncture and should not be produced by the baby itself after the puncture. As a result, side effects are almost never there. After vaccination, the puncture almost immediately offers about six months protection against the virus.
Every baby has the right to puncture
In other countries, where the vaccinating approved in 2023 has been given for some time, according to RIVM, the number of hospital admissions has fallen by 80 percent.
Because the RS virus shows a peak in the winter, the RIVM chooses to let the moment of vaccination depend on the date of birth. Babies born between October 1 and April 1 can get the shot before they are two weeks old. For the rest, the puncture follows in September or October.
