Winter virus jab ‘will not save children without urgent action’
Government delays vaccine decision despite doctors’ warning thousands at risk from RSV
MINISTERS must act now and implement a vaccination programme that will stop tens of thousands of children being hospitalised next winter, paediatricians have said.
In the summer, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised the Government to begin vaccinating against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
RSV is responsible for around 33,000 NHS hospitalisations of under-fives annually and kills between 20 and 30 youngsters a year. But the Government has so far not responded to the advice.
Yesterday, trial results showed that a single injection of the antibody drug Nirsevimab could prevent 80 per cent of hospital admissions for RSV, which experts said could be “game-changing”.
Experts argue that an immunisation programme would not only stop youngsters becoming seriously ill, but could free up the NHS during peak winter pressures.
Dr Camilla Kingdon, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), said: “RSV is a massive problem every single winter. We’ve now got a way out of it. We just need to get on and do it.
“We were thrilled when the JCVI published their guidance in support of a national rollout of an RSV vaccination programme and since then we’ve been waiting. I’m not reassured that much has happened in terms of next steps.
“I’m not in any way diminishing the fact that some very careful thought needs to be gone through to understand what’s going to be the most efficient way of doing this and then the practicalities of how to do that.
“If we really want to make a difference for next winter – because this winter we’re clearly too late to influence in any way in terms of RSV – we’ve really got to get our skates on.”
Each year in the UK the virus circulates in the winter months and typically peaks in December.
The RCPCH said this winter had been particularly bad for RSV cases, which have come at a time when the NHS is already struggling with an historic backlog of cases, and is braced for a new wave of junior doctors’ strikes.
Dr Kingdon, a neonatologist, said that at this time of year children’s wards are “pretty much full”, predominantly with RSV cases, adding: “Sadly, that means that planned or elective complex surgery has to be cancelled.
“I’m particularly thinking about children who are waiting for congenital cardiac surgery, children having complex spinal and other complex surgeries.”
She added: “I think the assumption is ‘children are largely healthy and RSV is just a virus’, and to some extent that’s
‘This winter we were too late ... For two months of the year RSV grinds acute care for children to a halt’
not untrue, but actually for two months of the year it literally grinds acute care for children to a halt.”
Modelling suggests that rolling out an RSV vaccine to infants could result in 108,000 fewer GP consultations, 74,000 fewer A&E visits and 20,000 fewer hospital admissions a year, solely in those aged under one.
Dr Joe Brierley, a consultant in the paediatric intensive care unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital, said of the trial results: “This could really be a game changer. I spend many hours looking after very sick children with this illness, ventilated in paediatric intensive care.”
A Department for Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We recognise the impact RSV has, both on individuals and on the capacity of our NHS services, and a final decision on whether or how a vaccination programme could be introduced will be made in due course.”