RSV Vaccine - Protected for only 6 months?

[bananasinabowl]

Is that right? So no antibodies or protection after the age of 6 months?

It's not that cut and dried. The STRONGEST protection is for the first six months - which is when your baby is most vulnerable. But it doesn't switch off after six months, it just decreases. But after six months your baby can make more of their own immune response.

My baby was admitted to hospital with RSV bronchiolitis last year. The jab wasn't available until a few weeks AFTER I have birth. Honestly, I would have done anything to spare my baby that hospital stay - even though m my LO had a relatively mild case, it's still horrible seeing your baby on oxygen. If the RSV vaccine head been available to me, I would absolutely have gotten it.

Rsv is really seasonal so the vaccine gives really good protection for a baby's first winter when they are the most vulnerable. By the time RSV season comes around again they'll be much bigger and stronger and probably have residual immunity too.

Even if it’s only 6 months the early months are the riskiest. As a parent who has sat praying by an ITU bed at 6 weeks if you can reduce the risk please do

Almost all admissions are in babies first winter - so it's not really a big problem if the vaccine immunity wears off? Probably more important how good it is for those first months.

RSV is basically a common cold, but it's dangerous for babies because their lungs are so tiny, so that's all you really need.

I have had the vaccine. I gave birth in November.
However my first DS got admitted to ICU hospital with Bronchiolitus in June at 9 months old… so not even RSV season and he was bigger.
I just wondered what happens after 6 months.

Hello,

I went for my vaccine today and the nurse told me that it wasn't a new vaccine - it's been given to premature babies since 1999, pregnant women are just a new group of people receiving it.

I also asked about immunity as I was under the assumption first 6 months and then it would wear off. The nurse told me that it offers mum and baby lifelong protection (not complete immunity) and the baby won't need another dose until they're called up at 70.

It was interesting and I'm glad I asked the questions.

Not sure about the protection, My daughter was preemie in 2009, she was given the RSV vaccine when she was 3 months then called again for it when she was 13 months.

@BoredZelda that's interesting - I can only quote what the immunisation nurse shared with me today. I can absolutely imagine there will be variations in information given out

I actually think the nurse is mixing up two different things. There is an antibody that is given to preemies to protect them and 1999 sounds right for that. This is sometimes referred to as immunisation too. There's a new and more effective antibody treatment that all babies in France and Spain get, but the NHS went for vaccinating pregnant women. The US recommends both the antibody AND the vaccine! Confusing situation.

The maternal RSV vaccine - Pfizer's Abrysvo - is more recent than 1999, it relies on some discoveries about RSV that weren't known until 2013. They've been testing it since 2018 in tens of thousands of people, including pregnant women.