Children with bronchiolitis and grandparents with pneumonia: the invisible victims of respiratory virus in Mexico
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The respiratory virus that attacks the little ones
Among all infectious agents causing respiratory diseases, THE RESPIRATORY SYMPLICATIONAL VIRUS (VSR) It has become one of the most aggressive. In the 2024–2025 winter season, he was responsible for 47% of the cases detectedcon 1,329 confirmed cases by laboratory.
“The VSR can range from a mild cold to death by bronchiolitis or pneumonia”warns Dr. Dania Abreu, a vaccine medical leader in Pfizer Mexico. Its greatest target are Babies under six monthswhose airways still immature collapse before the thick mucus and bronchospasmos.
Bronchiolitis, caused in 80% of cases by VSRIt is an acute inflammatory disease that causes severe respiratory distress, fever, constant crying and panting. WHO estimates that The VSR causes more than 3.6 million hospitalizations every year and up to 100,000 deaths in children under five years.
“Behind those figures there are empty cribs,” concludes Abreu.
A hospital without oxygen and a full waiting room
It’s five in the morning. In the emergency room of a public hospital in Iztapalapa, a mother lulls her baby with sunken fever and chest. In the other corner, a grandmother covers her mouth with a soaked scarf. There is no place for everyone. There is not enough oxygen. And nobody knows if they will endure another night without pneumonia.
It is not fiction. They are the faces of a brutal statistic: More than eight million 480 thousand cases of acute respiratory infections (Iras) They have registered in Mexico Only in the first semester of 2025according to official figures. Respiratory infections remain The main cause of morbidity in children under five years and older adultswith complications that can cost life.
Older adults: without sufficient defense or vaccines
The other face of this silent epidemic is that of the elderly. With an immune system weakened by age, Pneumonia becomes a sentence.
In Mexico, during 2024 they were recorded 19 thousand 463 deaths from pneumonia. Many of these deaths were related to VSR, pneumococcus or influenza infections.
Less than 53% of older adults are vaccinated against pneumococcusand the coverage against the VSR is practically nil. This lethal combination can lead to prolonged hospitalizations, chronic pulmonary damage, respiratory failure or serious cardiovascular events such as heart attacks.
What is science against that respiratory virus?
Dr. Marcelo Díaz Conde, also from Pfizer Mexico, explains that Vaccination is a key preventive tool. “We simulate contact with the virus, without infecting. Thus the immune system recognizes and prepares it,” he explains.
Thanks to medical advances, there are already VSR vaccinesas well as Pneumococcal vaccines of 20 serotypeswhich offer broader protection to both infants and older adults. However, Access is still limitedand the information, scarce.
Universal prevention, information and coverage urgent
Respiratory infections do not distinguish social class, but They do punish with greater force those who have less.
To protect those who are at greater risk – children under five years and older adults -, More than medical advances is required: political will, effective campaigns and a strengthened health system are needed.
Pneumonia does not expect. Nor bronchiolitis.
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