The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a vaccine aimed at expectant mothers to shield infants from the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
This follows their earlier approval for adults aged 60 and over. Pfizer’s vaccine, already available for older adults at Walgreens outlets, aims to combat a disease that has shown similarities in impact to the flu.
Doctors tout the vaccine’s potential effectiveness, citing studies that demonstrated an 82% protection rate against serious illness for infants whose mothers received the vaccine.
Amid the rising challenges of the ‘tripledemic’ – COVID-19, the flu, and RSV – doctors view these advancements as significant boosts to prevention efforts.
As the maternal RSV vaccine awaits final approval from the CDC’s advisory committee, medical professionals are also spotlighting Nirsevimab, a newly CDC-approved RSV vaccine for infants under 8 months.
The CDC’s team is scheduled to discuss the maternal vaccine in October.
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