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19th July 2024
The UK is set to become the first country in the world to have a national vaccination programme to protect both newborns and older adults against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The vaccination rollout – which will start from 1 September 2024 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and from 12 August 2024 in Scotland – includes a vaccine for pregnant women over 28 weeks to help protect their newborn babies, and a routine programme for those aged over 75, which includes a one-off campaign for people aged 75 to 79.
These are the groups at the greatest risk from RSV, based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) from June 2023.
The vaccination programme announcement follows the publication of an open letter in March 2024 signed by over 2,000 paediatricians and healthcare professionals from around the UK calling on the Government to act on the JCVI advice as soon as possible.
Commenting on the latest announcement, Dr Mike McKean, vice president for policy at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which led the campaign, said: ‘We’re delighted that the calls of thousands of paediatricians and health professionals for a much-needed RSV programme have been heard. Campaigning for an RSV vaccine has been a key issue for the College for many years now and today’s announcement represents a huge step forward for child health and the paediatric workforce in England and Scotland.’
All adults turning 75 years of age on or after 1 September 2024 will be eligible for the routine programme and should be offered a single dose of the RSV vaccine on or after their 75th birthday.
A one-off catch-up campaign for those aged 75 to 79 years old as of 1 September 2024 will aim to complete the majority by 31 August 2025.
In line with JCVI guidance, individuals will remain eligible until the day before their 80th birthday, with the exception of people who turn 80 in the first year who have until 31 August 2025 to get vaccinated.
All women who are at least 28 weeks pregnant on 1 September 2024, will be offered a single dose of the RSV vaccine. After that, pregnant women will become eligible as they reach 28 weeks gestation and remain eligible up to birth.
Maternal RSV vaccination reduces the risk of the virus leading to severe bronchiolitis by 70% in the first six months of life, after which the risk of severe infection is much lower.
The UK’s RSV vaccination programme will use the same vaccine to protect both newborns and older adults against RSV, which is Pfizer’s bivalent recombinant vaccine called Abrysvo, was licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in November last year.
In one trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Pfizer RSV vaccine given during pregnancy was shown to be effective against severe RSV-associated lower respiratory tract illness in infants up to six months old.
A second trial showed the vaccine prevented RSV-associated lower respiratory tract illness and RSV-associated acute respiratory illness in adults over 60 years of age.
NHS England data show RSV accounts for around 33,000 NHS hospitalisations in children aged under five in the UK each year, and is responsible for 20-30 infant deaths, posing a significant challenge to child health services each winter. It also causes around 9,000 hospital admissions in those aged over 75.
It is hoped the new vaccination programme will mitigate these risks, free up thousands of hospital bed days and help avoid hundreds of deaths each year.
Minister for public health and prevention, Andrew Gwynne, said he had seen the devastating effects of RSV firsthand.
‘My own grandson contracted RSV when he was just days old, leading to weeks in intensive care and a lifelong impact on his health. I don’t want anyone to go through what he went through.
‘Not only will this vaccine save lives and protect the most vulnerable, it will help ease pressure on our broken NHS, freeing up thousands of hospital beds as we head into winter.’
Dr McKean, added: ‘This newly announced programme has the potential to transform child health services during the winter months by reducing hospital admissions and could even save young lives. A reduction in RSV cases annually would allow us to focus on the many other children and young people requiring emergency care over winter months.
‘Vaccinations play a crucial role in protecting child health, but we are seeing a worrying decline in uptake across many routine childhood immunisations. As paediatricians, we want to continue to champion the use of vaccinations to win the battle against these dangerous and preventable infections.’
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine also welcomed the announcement, saying: ‘We greatly welcome the introduction of a national RSV vaccination programme to reduce the risk to children and ease the spike in seasonal pressure experienced by already overstretched [Emergency] Departments.
‘RSV is a nasty and potentially very serious illness which each year sees tens of thousands of poorly children brought into Emergency Departments by worried parents.
‘We commend the excellent work done by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in calling for the implementation of this vaccination programme and we look forward to seeing the positive impact felt by families and medical staff in the coming winter as a result.’
Dr Christopher Johnson, head of vaccine preventable disease programme at Public Health Wales said: ‘The RSV vaccine has the potential to save 1,000 young children every year in Wales from hospitalisation and could save the lives of over 125 older people each year.
‘It is a game-changing new vaccination programme that will protect thousands of our most vulnerable from getting ill in the first place, or significantly reducing the likelihood of severe infection, keeping people out of hospital and from needing to see a GP, and enabling more people to benefit from NHS services.’
23rd June 2023
The UK should introduce routine vaccination for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to protect babies and older adults, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has recommended.
It has made the early recommendations after reviewing several vaccines currently in development to allow sufficient lead time for the Government to get a policy and programme in place, a statement said.
The committee said there was a significant burden of RSV illness in the UK population and ‘unmet public health need which has a considerable impact on NHS services during the winter months’.
A series of meetings have been held by the committee this year to review the efficacy, safety and duration of protection of the new vaccines that are being developed.
Modelling has also been done by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on the impact and cost effectiveness of potential immunisation strategies, the committee said.
One potential vaccine developed by Sanofi and AstraZeneca – long acting monoclonal medicine Beyfortus (nirsevimab) for passive immunisation against RSV infection and disease in infants – was licensed by the European Commission and and UK regulators in November.
Pfizer has also developed a bivalent RSV maternal vaccine which has undergone clinical trials and has a potential licensing timeline in 2023, the committee said.
There was no preference whether a maternal vaccination or a passive immunisation programme should be chosen to protect babies and both should be considered.
But a year-round vaccination programme would ensure high uptake and would be less complex and resource intensive to deliver than seasonal immunisation, the JCVI advised.
For the over-75s there are currently three vaccine products in development by GSK, Pfizer and Moderna which are due to be licensed this year or early 2024, all of which should be considered, the committee said.
An RSV vaccine programme for adults aged 75 years and above could also be cost effective with the committee favouring a one-off campaign with an initial offer covering several age groups followed by a routine programme for those turning 75 years old.
‘In summary, JCVI advises that a RSV immunisation programme, that is cost effective, should be developed for both infants and older adults,’ it said.
‘A fuller statement providing more detail on the evidence considered and the key discussions and conclusions of the committee will be published alongside the minutes of the June meeting,’ it added.
‘The committee will continue to keep its advice under review as further evidence emerges and will update its advice when appropriate.’
JCVI joint committee chair Professor Sir Andrew Pollard said: ‘The JCVI recognises that there is a significant burden of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) illness in the UK population, which has a considerable impact on the NHS during winter.
‘The Committee has issued a rapid short statement advising that a RSV immunisation programme that is cost effective should be developed for both infant and older adults. The statement has been published to enable engagement with stakeholders, with a final statement issued to Ministers later this summer to inform a policy decision.’
This article was originally published by our sister title Pulse.
27th September 2022
Nirsevimab has been recommended for a marketing authorisation in the European Union for the prevention of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) lower respiratory tract disease in newborn babies and infants during their first RSV season and when there is a risk of RSV infection in the community.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common cause of childhood infections and which usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms. However, RSV can give rise to lower respiratory infection such as bronchiolitis and is also a major cause of hospital admissions in young children.
While there are a number of recognised risk factors for RSV in children including prematurity, low birth weight, maternal smoking and a history of atopy, other data has revealed that among children hospitalised with RSV, 79% were previously healthy.
Nirsevimab (brand name Beyfortus) a recombinant human monoclonal antibody with an extended half-life that binds the F1 and F2 subunits of the RSV fusion (F) protein at a highly conserved epitope, locking the RSV F protein in the pre-fusion conformation and blocking viral entry into the host cell.
In a study of 1453 preterm, healthy infants, a single 50 mg dose of nirsevimab administered before the RSV season gave rise to a 70.1% lower incidence of RSV infection and a 78.4% lower incidence of hospitalisation for RSV-associated infections over an 150-day period after administration of the dose.
Nirsevimab was supported through the EMA’s PRIority Medicines (PRIME) scheme, which provides early and enhanced scientific and regulatory support to promising new medicines that address unmet medical needs. Beyfortus was also evaluated under EMA’s accelerated assessment mechanism because prevention of RSV infection in all infants is considered to be of major public health interest.
Nirsevimab clinical efficacy
The effectiveness of the monoclonal antibody was evaluated in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in which infants with a gestational age of at least 35 weeks were given either a single 50 mg intramuscular injection of nirsevimab (or 100 mg if their weight was above 5 kg) or placebo in a 2:1 (nirsevimab: placebo) ratio.
The primary efficacy endpoint was medically attended RSV-associated lower respiratory tract infections through to 150 days after the injection. The secondary efficacy endpoint was hospitalisation due to RSV over the same time period. A total of 1,490 infants with a median age of 2.6 months (48.4% female) were enrolled in the trial.
The primary endpoint occurred in 1.2% of those receiving nirsevimab and 5% of those given a placebo injection, corresponding to an efficacy of 74.5% (p < 0.001) and the efficacy against hospitalisation for RSV was 62.1% (p = 0.07).
According to the EMA, the opinion of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) is an intermediary step on Beyfortus’ path to patient access. This opinion will now be sent to the European Commission for the adoption of a decision on an EU-wide marketing authorisation and once granted, decisions about price and reimbursement will take place at the level of each Member State, taking into account the potential role/use of this medicine in the context of the national health system of that country.
31st August 2022
Pfizer’s vaccine candidate RSVpreF for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) showed a high level of efficacy in older patients with more severe lower respiratory tract illness which was defined by three or more RSV-associated symptoms.
RSV is a major viral pathogen causing severe lung disease in the adult population, particularly among the elderly and which constitutes a substantial disease burden. The global number of hospital admissions for RSV-ARI in older adults has been estimated to be 336,000 leading to about 14,000 in-hospital deaths.
Currently, there is no specific treatment for the virus apart from supportive care. RSV has two molecular subtypes A and B and RSVpreF is bivalent vaccine based on the crystal structure of pre-fusion F and which is a vital form of the viral fusion protein (F) that RSV uses to attack human cells. The vaccine itself contains two preF proteins which protect against the two main form of RSV, A and B which actually have multiple genotypes within each of them.
The phase 3 trial RENOIR is designed to assess the efficacy, immunogenicity and safety of RSVpreF in adults. While RENOIR is not complete, the release describes how to date, the trial has enrolled approximately 37,000 participants and who were randomised to receive 120μg RSVpreF or placebo in a 1:1 ratio. Enrolment up to approximately 40,000 participants continues in the Southern Hemisphere to accumulate cases during their first season.
A pre-planned, interim analysis was used to assess protection against RSV-associated lower respiratory tract illness defined by two or more symptoms. The analysis determined a vaccine efficacy of 66.7% (96.66% CI: 28.8% – 85.8%).
Based on this positive result, Pfizer turned to the more severe disease primary endpoint defined by three or more symptoms and where the vaccine efficacy was 85.7% (96.66% CI: 32.0% – 98.7%). Moreover, an independent, external Data Monitoring Committee indicated the investigational vaccine was well-tolerated, with no safety concerns.
Commenting on these interim findings, Annaliesa Anderson, senior vice president and chief scientific officer, vaccine research and development at Pfizer said: ‘Scientists and researchers have worked to develop RSV vaccines with little success for over half a century. These findings are an important step in our effort to help protect against RSV disease.’
Pfizer is also investigating the efficacy and safety of RSVpreF in infants born to women vaccinated during pregnancy.
11th August 2022
Dexter Wiseman is a registrar at Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, London, but has also been working at the National Heart and Lung Institute based at Imperial College, where he has just submitted a PhD. Part of his research involved working with the RESCEU (REspiratory Syncytial virus Consortium in EUrope) Project, a European group investigating the burden of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) across Europe, with a work package focusing on older adults with chronic lung disease.
We had the pleasure of speaking with him about his work, the condition, and how he feels research will progress in the future.
Dr Wiseman explained that respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an RNA virus that was first discovered in the 1950s and found to be pathogenic, initially in chimpanzees but then also in humans. There are two common strains – A and B – that differ in the proteins present on the viral membrane. The virus is spread via respiratory droplets and has an incubation period of four to five days.
Dr Wiseman added that although the virus enters via the nasopharyngeal route, ‘it can also be transmitted through the conjunctival membrane and then spreads into the lower airways and replicates in the ciliated cells.’ The resultant humoral and T cell immune response causes cell necrosis, pushing the debris into the airways. Interestingly, he also described how in a healthy adult, human challenge study with the virus, where bronchoscopy was performed before and after infection, it was found that ‘even when the symptoms had subsided from RSV, there was still evidence of macroscopic inflammation, so that RSV might be doing a lot more than we realised when it comes to inflammation.’
A further problem among those who become infected with RSV, Dr Wiseman continued, was that that immunity to the virus is short-lived, so that individuals remain susceptible to re-infection throughout their life. In fact, he mentioned how other human challenge studies have suggested that an individual can be susceptible to re-infection in as little as two months after their initial infection.
Why immunity wanes so quickly he says is still unclear, although what is known is that among older adults both immunosenescence and inflammaging can be detrimental such that their immune system appears to work against them with respect to the virus.
RSV displays a seasonality for infection, which is traditionally from October to March, although due to the COVID-19 pandemic and greater hand hygiene and the use of face masks, the seasonality was disrupted. Nevertheless, he noted that in countries such as Australia, where there has been a lot of epidemiological work on RSV, while some evidence has revealed a winter spike in cases, it seems that RSV might no longer being following its traditional pattern.
Dr Wiseman said that the symptoms of RSV are very non-specific, which poses a diagnostic challenge for clinicians, making it difficult to differentiate RSV from other more common viral infections. Typically, he says, adults would present with ‘nasal congestion, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, sputum, wheeze and fever. They will also get headache, fatigue and myalgia.’ He mentioned how a study conducted in the pre-COVID era found that the symptomology of several different viral infections was broadly similar, so that making a diagnosis of RSV based solely on symptoms was impossible.
While RSV can be identified through PCR testing, if this is not performed within the first few days of symptom onset, the result if often negative (i.e., a false negative) in older adults. This, he explained was a phenomenon encountered in one of his COPD trials where patients were asked to keep a symptom diary and record when they developed any specific symptoms such as a runny nose.
As Dr Wiseman explained, ‘as they [patients] become more unwell, short of breath, having a cough with productive sputum, they would test negative on PCR but when we did the serology, we would find that they did have an RSV illness.’
Although, as Dr Wiseman explained, pretty much everyone will have had exposure to RSV by the age of two, ‘we don’t really know much about the burden of RSV or what it does from older childhood to adulthood where people are healthy, and that’s a very understudied area.’
Nevertheless, the information that is available does suggest that RSV has a considerable burden upon adults. He mentioned a 2015 meta-analysis undertaken of studies in Western countries that found a prevalence of 1.5 million acute cases of RSV, of which 200,000 required hospitalisation.
Furthermore, a seminal 2005 paper revealed that RSV led to an estimated 14,000 deaths every year in the USA among older adults and which was significantly greater than the 1 to 500 deaths per year among US children. Other analyses have demonstrated that the burden of RSV increases with age, such that an estimated 1 hospitalisation per 10,000 cases in those aged 65 years and older can be expected to occur, although this increases to 5 per 10,000 cases in those over 80 years of age.
Dr Wiseman also described how RSV is known to be a trigger of COPD and asthma exacerbations. He said that a recent study in older adults ‘had estimated a prevalence of around 6% per year in community dwelling older adults’ when testing was done with nasal swabbing and a PCR test, together with serology to diagnose RSV throughout two seasons. He added that an interesting observation from this study was how the duration of symptoms was 19 days, and that in a third of cases a visit to a physician was required.
While it is possible for anyone to become infected with RSV, Dr Wiseman explained how there are risk factors associated with a poor outcome such as a longer symptom duration, hospitalisation or even death. These include chronic lung conditions, e.g., COPD, asthma, chronic heart conditions such as heart failure, and being immunocompromised.
He added that a further complication for heart disease patients is that RSV ‘promotes the increase of certain inflammatory markers such as IL-6 and tumour necrosis factor that can promote plaque destabilisation and can mean that some of these patients end up with an MI [myocardial infarction] from RSV.’ He cited another vulnerable group was care home residents due to the highly contagious nature of RSV and who are generally older and have a number of comorbidities.
Dr Wiseman felt that COVID-19 mitigation strategies such as mask-wearing and self-isolation once an individual develops respiratory symptoms might help reduce the future spread of RSV. However, because immunity to RSV is often short-lived, individuals are still at an increased risk because they become ‘immune-naïve to RSV again and it is known that people with higher quantities of antibodies to the F protein in their blood are less likely to have symptomatic illness with RSV.’
He cited early data from Australia that has revealed how ‘RSV has kicked up post-COVID much more so than influenza’, although recent molecular studies have shown that RSV now has fewer strains so that the heterogeneity of RSV has decreased significantly. Precisely what long-term effect this might have remains unclear, however.
Dr Wiseman said that at the present time there are no specific interventions for adults infected with RSV, either in the community or hospital. Treatment is therefore symptomatic and directed towards any underlying comorbidities, which tend to worsen due to the infection.
He mentioned how infected patients’ oxygen levels can drop, warranting supplementary oxygen, and as their condition deteriorates, either non-invasive or mechanical ventilation might be needed. The virus effects can reduce patients’ blood pressure, necessitating additional fluids and, in some cases, inotropes, and typically worsens both chronic heart failure and COPD.
Additionally, infection with RSV, especially in those with an underlying lung disease, can lead to a bacterial infection and bacterial pneumonia. Dr Wiseman explained that while RSV can itself cause pneumonia in older patients with a reduced immunity, leading to inflammaging which can be fatal, it is more often the case that an exacerbation of a comorbidity due to infection that is usually the cause of death in most patients.
Currently, Dr Wiseman said many hospitals include RSV on their viral multiplex panel for PCR testing, adding how, while less accurate in the past, point-of-care test kits are now much better at detecting the virus. In clinical studies rather than rely on PCR testing, it is more usual to perform baseline serum samples, and where there is a clinical suspicion of an RSV infection, serum testing is repeated to determine if there is a rise in RSV antibody levels.
Dr Wiseman said that while there is an ongoing debate over the value of screening for RSV, especially given the absence of a specific treatment, he believes that screening does have a value, particularly considering data suggesting worse outcomes from RSV infection compared with influenza and how knowledge of the infecting virus allows clinicians to instigate vigilance measures.
As he explained, with research showing that ‘mortality was greater at one year for those hospitalised with RSV than for those with influenza and because RSV is contagious, if you can identify someone in the care home or the hospital ward having RSV, you might then implement barrier nursing or some procedures to try and stop the spread of the virus to other vulnerable people in the facility.’
Dr Wiseman thinks that the cost of PCR testing is certainly an important barrier in some countries. However, perhaps a more important factor is simply lack of awareness of the virus among clinicians. He cited research which ‘found that when patients were eventually diagnosed with RSV during their admission, it was only in about a third of those cases that a viral PCR swab at the point of admission was considered.’ He believes there needs to a cultural shift within the medical profession before the diagnosis of RSV is considered more widely, especially among older adults.
A further hurdle limiting awareness among medical staff is that unlike influenza, RSV is not a reportable disease, although he said this is slowly changing, and it has already happened in Australia.
With the available data suggesting that patients hospitalised with RSV often have more severe disease, a longer hospital stay, and even higher mortality than those with influenza, now is the time to raise awareness of this under-recognised, yet potentially fatal, viral pathogen
A further obstacle is the lack of availability of point-of-care tests within emergency departments, despite the fact that many currently available panels are multiplexed and able to identify a whole range of viral pathogens including RSV.
Dr Wiseman believes there is an argument for point-of-care testing to be carried out in general practice. This, he feels, would be invaluable for the older and more vulnerable adults with viral symptoms and comorbidities, enabling doctors to monitor individuals who test positive for RSV and might also then lowering the threshold for a subsequent hospital admission.
Dr Wiseman described how studies of anti-virals against RSV have been met with limited success, though there has been some benefit for a subset of patients, e.g., those who are immunosuppressed. However, overall, there is no statistically significant evidence that anti-viral therapy helps with RSV.
Dr Wiseman feels that greater awareness of RSV in older adults would be very important first step but believes that this is already happening with a greater propensity to send PCR swabs for multiplex testing from hospital wards.
A further important development will be the introduction of an RSV vaccine. He noted that provisional data appears to be promising in terms of reducing symptom burden and even reducing poorer outcomes, adding more concrete data will arise from Phase IV trials.
While anti-virals have not demonstrated much use in patients already infected with RSV, Dr Wiseman thinks there is a need to examine whether the early use of anti-virals could reduce or prevent hospitalisation. He also would like to see the collection of more data on the effect of RSV in younger, healthy adults, particularly given how there is bronchoscopy evidence of residual inflammation even after symptoms have resolved. Dr Wiseman feels that the continued presence of inflammation in the lungs might explain why RSV is such a burden for those with lung diseases, leading to poorer outcomes.
Finally, Dr Wiseman believes that greater awareness of RSV is needed among government bodies and those directing health policy. With the available data suggesting that patients hospitalised with RSV often have more severe disease, a longer hospital stay, and even higher mortality than those with influenza, now is the time to raise awareness of this under-recognised, yet potentially fatal, viral pathogen.
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