Winter virus jab for babies is hailed as 'game changer' for NHS

A jab that prevents 80 per cent of children’s hospital admissions for a common winter virus has been hailed as a “game changer” for the NHS.

The antibody Nirsevimab could be included in next winter’s immunisation programme after trials showed that it offers immediate protection for children against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

RSV is responsible for about 33,000 NHS hospitalisations of under-fives annually and kills between 20 and 30 children a year.

The virus commonly causes a heavy cold and earache in babies but can lead to pneumonia and bronchiolitis, a severe disease that causes feeding difficulties, dehydration, chest infections and breathing failure.

Children can catch RSV at any age, but it is particularly serious for those under 12 months and at-risk infants such as premature babies, as well as those who are immunocompromised or children with lung problems.

Winter spikes

Dr Joe Brierley, a consultant in the paediatric intensive care unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, said: “This could really be a game changer.

“I spend many hours, including all this Christmas, looking after very sick children with this illness, ventilated in paediatric intensive care. [It would] be great to see this prevented.”

RSV usually spikes for six weeks in the winter, putting significant strain on paediatric units, but since Covid it has also been surging in the summer months.

More than 8,000 infants from Britain, France and Germany were included in the study, partly carried out in Britain, when RSV was rife in communities.

Results showed that just 0.3 per cent of babies injected with Nirsevimab were hospitalised with RSV, compared with 1.5 per cent of the group receiving usual care - an admission drop of 80 per cent.

‘Highly distressing’

The number of very severe infections was also reduced from five in 1,000 to just one in 1,000.

Dr Simon Drysdale, co-study leader and consultant paediatrician at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, said: “RSV is a very contagious infection and every year our wards are full of babies with breathing and feeding problems.

“The thousands of winter hospital admissions are highly distressing for families and cause a huge winter burden on the NHS. This ground-breaking study shows the potential NHS impact and safety of a monoclonal antibody injection.”

Unlike a vaccine, which prompts the body to make a response to an invader, monoclonal antibodies are designed to work straight away, themselves targeting the source of the infection.

This summer, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation advised that a RSV immunisation programme should be developed for both infants and older adults with Nirsevimab one of the options being considered for RSV prevention next winter.

Following in Spain’s footsteps

It is likely to replace palivizumab, which has been available for many years but is not widely used because it is expensive and inconvenient, requiring five injections over five months. It has not been decided what age children would be when they receive the jab.

Prof Saul Faust helped lead one arm of the study at the University of Southampton, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“These latest results show that this long-acting antibody is safe and could protect thousands of babies from hospitalisation when used in conditions similar to routine clinical practice,” he said.

“It is really important information for the UK to help decide on options for the future national RSV immunisation programme.”

While there are currently dozens of vaccines and antibodies in development, Nirsevimab, made by Sanofi in partnership with AstraZeneca, is already being rolled out in the US and Spain. Some experts believe that preventing RSV in the first six months of life could cut rates of wheezing and asthma.

‘Splendid result for babies’

Calum Semple, professor of child health and outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool, said: “This is a splendid result for babies, their families and our health services.

“RSV causes misery to tens of thousands of babies in their first year of life in the UK.”

Taking pressure off the health service would help at a time when the NHS is struggling to clear a waiting list of 7.8 million patients, which is set to be exacerbated by junior doctors striking again for six days from Jan 3.

Nurses have also hinted at more action next year despite agreeing a new pay deal with the Government.

In a new year message, Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said that in 2024 the union would challenge every party to provide “hard cash” for nursing, and  “push ministers further than they want to go”.