Population Health
Promising start for RSV vaccination programme
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The new maternal Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine rolled out in September saw more than one in three women giving birth during the month take up the offer of immunisation against the infection, giving vital protection to newborns from the first day of life against the potentially severe and life-threatening illness.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data from NHS GP practice records shows 33.6 per cent of women who delivered in September had the RSV vaccine. With a relatively short window to take up the offer, the programme got off to a “positive start” in its first month of introduction, says the agency.
Further coverage data for October births, with pregnant women having had a longer window in which to get vaccinated, will be published in a month’s time.
The most recent data from the NHS in England shows that over 140,000 pregnant women have now been vaccinated since the programme launched in September.
Pregnant women should be offered the RSV vaccine around the time of the 28-week antenatal appointment.
The data shows considerable variability in uptake by ethnic group ranging from 11 per cent in women of mixed white and Black Caribbean ethnicity to over 50 per cent in White-Irish and Chinese ethnic groups.
RSV accounts for around 30,000 hospitalisations of children under five years of age every year and causes 20 to 30 infant deaths.
It infects around 90 per cent of children within the first two years of life and typically causes mild, cold-like symptoms. However, it can lead to severe lung infections like pneumonia and infant bronchiolitis.