NOS News•
Dutch babies can be vaccinated against the RS virus from next month. Every year hundreds of children end up in the hospital because of that virus, the injection must considerably reduce that number.
The respiratory syncytial virus causes respiratory infections, especially in very young children. Symptoms are nose cold and coughing, in more serious cases, stuff and high fever can also occur.
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. Around 150 of them end up in the IC, which therefore becomes overloaded every autumn and winter.
Hardly any side effects
The new puncture could largely reduce the disease. 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.
The vaccination is not a vaccination but about 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.
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 March 1 get the shot before they are two weeks old. For the rest, the puncture follows in September or October.
Babies born after 1 April this year will be the first to be next week.
