UEA expert warns RSV will continue to drain the NHS until vaccines are rolled out
Campaigners estimate that tackling Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) costs the health service £92 million a year
A professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia's telling us that a common respiratory virus will continue to cause a "big drain" on the NHS until recommended vaccinations are rolled out.
Campaigners estimate that tackling Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) costs the health service £92 million a year, with it affecting young babies most severely, mostly in winter.
"The problems are at the beginning and end of our lives"
Professor Paul Hunter works at the University of East Anglia:
"It infects pretty much all of us multiple times throughout our lives. The problems are at the beginning and end of our lives. Young children, in their first year, can get very sick with their first episode of RSV.
"It cases a chest infection in young babies and it can even be fatal to them.
"With all this in mind it causes a big drain on the health service, for two or three months of the year in the winter.
"If your child is getting more dozy than you would expect for that time of the day, and if their lips are turning blue, that's evidence you need to seek medical attention pretty quickly.
"Likely to see a significant reduction in the number of babies on paediatric wards"
"The introduction of a vaccine programme would easily mean that less than half of the children that are currently ending up in hospitals with RSV will have to go there.
"I think we are also likely to see a significant reduction in the number of babies on paediatric wards.
"We're now waiting to see what the Department of Health says regarding how a vaccine programme could work and how it could work."
What impact is RSV having?
Campaign group Together Against RSV says illness through RSV results in 467,000 GP visits and 34,000 hospital admissions annually.
Almost 3 in 4 GPs and Emergency Medicine Specialists (74%) are reported to believe that infant RSV-related illnesses place an unsustainable burden on paediatric intensive care beds, with almost three-quarters (76%) reporting this places a detrimental impact on their ability to carry out elective procedures.
More than half (52%) of health care providers are said to agree that parents are often uninformed when it comes to RSV.
The Together Against RSV campaign is now calling for work to get underway, to reduce infant RSV hospital admissions ahead of the next RSV season.
What's the government doing?
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation advised in September 2023 that a cost effective RSV immunisation programme be developed for infants and the elderly.