New NHS Jab to protect premature babies from RSV

ODN

The NHS is set to roll out a single, long-lasting injection this autumn to protect premature and vulnerable babies from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The jab offers a vital “protective bubble” during the winter months, when RSV infections typically spike. Health officials say the new measure could prevent thousands of hospitalisations and reduce strain on paediatric services. Report by Etemadil. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00Almost every baby gets RSV in the first year of life and in fact we all get it and we all might

00:06have mild symptoms but in babies you get inflammation of the airways and if you think

00:11about our airways they're really big and so a little bit of inflammation just gives us a cough.

00:16With smaller babies the airways can be only a few millimeters wide and if you get a little bit of

00:21inflammation it can start to make it difficult for air to move through and babies start to struggle

00:27with their breathing and it's really scary for parents so premature babies are some of the most

00:33vulnerable patients we've got within the NHS and they're 10 times more likely to require intensive

00:40care if they do get RSV and we've been really lucky in that we're running a national program

00:47for immunization so mothers can be immunized. The problem is is that the premature babies

00:54are delivered before the immunization is given and so what this means is that those 7000-8000 babies

01:01in that position we can now give them protection.

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