NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. health officials on Friday recommended RSV vaccinations for expectant mothers, a second new option to protect newborns from serious lung infections.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the shots should be given late in pregnancy, but only during RSV season.
“This is another new tool we can use this fall and winter to protect lives,” CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a statement.
Recently, the agency recommended another option for protecting young children from serious RSV: laboratory-produced antibodies administered before the RSV season. A single dose is given to babies by injection after they are born.
Most infants probably only need protection from one – either the mother’s vaccine or the antibodies – but not both, Cohen said.
There are no direct studies showing which is more effective, and no published research on the safety of giving both. And both are expensive, although the cost is ultimately covered by insurance.
The RSV vaccine, which is made by Pfizer, should only be given between the 32nd and 36th week of pregnancy. The shot prompts expectant mothers to develop virus-fighting antibodies that pass through the placenta to the fetus. Protection in newborns likely wanes after 6 months of age, so the shot is given in most of the United States between September and January, the time of year that RSV infections are most common.
