The High Authority for Health (HAS) announced the approval of a first vaccine against bronchiolitis in infants, intended for women who are at least 8 months pregnant. This new vaccine will be marketed in France from next September, after a first marketing authorization on a European scale in August 2023.
This is the first vaccine intended to prevent bronchiolitis in infants to be approved by the HAS, after a monoclonal antibody intended to immunize infants, in 2023.
The new vaccine should help reduce bronchiolitis in infants, the High Authority for Health indicated in a press release.
This infection, caused “in almost three-quarters of cases by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)”, affects “nearly 30% of infants under the age of two” each year, according to the same source. According to the High Authority…
health, the tests carried out show “a significant reduction in severe respiratory infections linked to RSV: 81.8% at 3 months, 69.4% at 6 months”, after the use of this new vaccine.
“A reduction in hospitalizations is also observed: 67.7% at 3 months, 56.8% at 6 months,” specifies the press release, noting that “there has been no reported increase in serious adverse events nor in the mother, nor in the newborn” in connection with the vaccine.
“With the arrival of this vaccine, parents could thus have the choice – from September – between two possibilities to protect their infant against infections caused by RSV,” underlines the HAS. Compared to the first vaccine, the new one has the advantage of not requiring an injection for infants and of protecting them from birth, explains the same source.
