Experts Concerned: New RSV Vaccination Could Increase Risk of Premature Births

2023-05-11 09:28:43

HomeNewsExperts worried: New RSV vaccination could lead to premature births

RS virus can be life-threatening for babies. Pfizer is currently working on a vaccine for pregnant women. Some scientists are critical of the vaccine.

A pregnant woman is vaccinated. Pfizer is working on a vaccine for expectant mothers to protect their infants from RSV infection.imago

A vaccine against RSV, which is about to be approved, could increase the risk of premature births, according to experts. Specifically, it is about a vaccine from the vaccine manufacturer Pfizer called “RSVpreF”. In the future, it could be given to pregnant women between the 24th and 36th week of pregnancy to protect their unborn children from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease.

Scientists recently expressed their concerns about the Pfizer vaccine in the specialist journal British Medical Journal (BMJ) in view of similar problems with a vaccine candidate from GSK. This is very similar to the principle of action of Pfizer’s bivalent vaccine and is already suspected of increasing the risk of premature birth in vaccinated women. The phase III trials for the GSK vaccine were then discontinued.

“I can’t explain why that one [Impfstoff] should be causing these problems and the other isn’t,” said Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and an adviser on the CDC’s RSV working group. The scientists are now calling for further investigations.

In a so-called “maternal immunization”, protective antibodies are passed on to the baby via the placenta and later via breast milk.

RSV wave swept Germany last winter

RSV is a global pathogen that can cause severe respiratory disease. An infection can be particularly dangerous for the elderly and people with a weakened immune system, but also for newborns and infants.

Last winter in Germany, more newborns and infants than usual had to be treated in clinics for acute respiratory diseases. Experts suspect a catch-up effect after the corona pandemic, where comparatively few children came into contact with RSV. So far, the disease can only be treated symptomatically.