Infection with respiratory syncytial virus puts tens of thousands of children in hospital each year in France, according to Santé Publique France, either for emergency room consultations or hospitalizations. Around 5,000 children even go to intensive care or even intensive care.
Since last year, a drug, nirsevimab (Beyfortus) has made it possible to better protect infants and newborns against this virus which can cause acute bronchiolitis. In 2023, 250,000 doses of vaccine were supplied by the AstraZeneca and Sanofi laboratories. The medication was 100% reimbursed. According to the Pasteur Institute, the injections helped avoid 5,800 hospitalizations of children. According to the High Health Authority, the vaccine provides maximum protection for the newborn, six days after the injection, which lasts at least five months.
600,000 doses for all babies in 2024
This year, 600,000 doses have been made available. The antibody is theoretically available for all babies born in 2024. Problem: it is only reimbursed at 30%, with public authorities counting on the fact that 95% of families would be covered by mutual insurance. The reality turns out to be more complicated and many parents find themselves faced with out-of-pocket costs, which can amount to up to €300.
If Health Insurance has reduced reimbursement for the drug, it is because the High Authority for Health has deemed the improvement in the medical service rendered “minor”. Enough to make several learned societies in the medical community jump, such as the French Society of Pediatrics, who hope that the Ministry of Health will arbitrate for its 100% reimbursement. They consider that “by restricting access to this therapeutic innovation, we penalize the poorest families and further widen social health inequalities that are already worrying in our country”.
A delegation to the ministry this November 27
Christèle Gras-Le Guen is spokesperson for the French Pediatric Society. She was part of a delegation, received this Wednesday, November 27, by advisors to the Minister of Health and Access to Care. “For babies immunized this winter in the maternity ward, the care is comprehensive, it is part of the hospital package. The families who do not systematically benefit from it are those who go to the pharmacy to get the product because the babies were born before September, before the product is available in maternity wards. This is not acceptable,” she means.
The one who is also head of the women’s child adolescent center and pediatric emergencies at the Nantes University Hospital fears, with her mobilized colleagues, that the vaccine will no longer be available in hospitals in the fall of 2025. “It would be a major loss of opportunity for many children. At the CHU maternity ward, we managed to free up time for a midwife to only take care of informing families and vaccinating babies. We are 97% of babies immunized before their departure,” she assures.
Health
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