New RSV vaccines OK’d for high-risk groups, thanks to UI trial work – The Gazette

IOWA CITY When the phrase something is going around becomes common in schools, offices, and inevitably health care clinics every fall, a frequent fear especially among older patients and the parents of infants is that the something is RSV.

Although the common and highly contagious RSV short for respiratory syncytial virus runs a mild, cold-like course for most people, it can hit infants and patients over 60 hard, even requiring hospitalization.

But, for the first time, a vaccine now is available for those high-risk groups thanks, in part, to University of Iowa Health Care trial work.

There are actually two vaccines on the market, UIHC nurse practitioner Christina Kopp told The Gazette about the shots marketed for adults over the age of 60 and for pregnant women, 32 to 36 weeks pregnant.

Between 58,000 and 80,000 children under age 5 are hospitalized for RSV annually in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 100 and 300 kids die from RSV nationally every year.

The goal is that the mom can pass the antibodies on to the newborn and have a good antibody supply in that newborn until it starts to drop about six months of age, Kopp said.

Every year in the United States, 60,000 to 160,000 older adults are hospitalized for RSV and 6,000 to 10,000 die, according to the CDC.

The new vaccines became available in May after long-sought Food & Drug Administration approval and after decades of RSV-vaccine related efforts and, more recently, groundbreaking trials.

One vaccine, Arexvy by GSK, is approved for people 60 and older; a second, Abrysvo by Pfizer, also is approved for pregnant women near the end of their term.

Both contain part of the RSV virus and work by inciting an immune response that can protect from future illness.

The UI participated in a clinical trial for the Pfizer RSV vaccine, led by Dr. Patricia Winokur, executive dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine. The UI site enrolled about 150 Iowans.

Winokur said the vaccines were very effective.

They were tested in really big clinical trials, with about 40,000 people in each of the trials for the two vaccines, and about 85 percent of people were protected from having serious RSV disease, Winokur said for a UI Health Care report on the vaccines in October. That is a pretty good track record.

The immunity, according to the trials, seemed to last two years, which is really encouraging, Winokur said.

UIHC, among its current vaccine and treatment trials, is participating in a phase investigating the Pfizer RSV vaccines effectiveness for adults at high risk for severe complications from the virus.

If you are a solid organ transplant recipient, are currently undergoing dialysis, or are currently being treated for cancer, and would be interested in participating in this trial, please complete the survey, according to a UIHC appeal for trial participants.

Other vaccines UIHC is investigating include an mRNA vaccine for shingles, a new pediatric flu vaccine and an updated COVID vaccine.

Steve Varga, UI RSV expert and professor of microbiology and immunology, said RSV can be more threatening to infants because their airways are small and still growing.

But developing an RSV vaccine has been a struggle since scientists started in earnest in the 1960s, according to Varga. Initial trials failed, in that vaccines they tested caused children to experience worse disease than when they were naturally infected with RSV.

The terrible failure of that vaccine trial was such a shock to the scientific community that it effectively halted RSV vaccine development for decades, according to Varga. It also led to many of the new safeguards for conducting and monitoring clinical trials that are used today to ensure the safe development of vaccines and therapies.

A breakthrough in RSV vaccine work came several years ago when scientists determined how to target a protein on the surface of the virus.

Immunology has also advanced significantly, Varga said. And scientists now know why the original vaccine failed.

Still, no RSV cure or treatment exists with supportive care the best bet, including things like Tylenol or ibuprofen as needed, along with rest and fluids.

RSV preventive antibody products have been OKd for infants and young children with conditions that put them at higher risk for severe illness but theyre in short supply, making the vaccines for pregnant women the best way to protect newborns.

The highest risk group is those really young infants, and so getting those pregnant moms able to get vaccinated and transfer those antibodies is a really good protection, said Kopp, the UI nurse practitioner.

Today, pregnant women are advised to get vaccines, including flu, Tdap, COVID and now RSV.

Kopp said she wishes that full list had been available to her a year ago.

Last year, I actually was pregnant myself and had a baby in October of 2022, Kopp said. And I remember hearing about the RSV vaccine coming soon and I was like, I wish that it was available so that I could get it. One of the biggest fears, as a health care provider, is having a newborn at home and worrying about RSV.

People can schedule a flu or COVID shot with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics either online or through My Chart at https://uihc.org/get-vaccinated

People eligible for the RSV vaccines 60 and older, or pregnant women (32 to 36 weeks) can talk with their doctor about getting the vaccine.

Source: UI Health Care

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com

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New RSV vaccines OK'd for high-risk groups, thanks to UI trial work - The Gazette