Risk of hospitalization for infants aged ≤7 months has markedly declined in the 2024-25 RSV season. This overall decline is a very encouraging sign in the ongoing battle against RSV. The pediatric hospitalization rate for children dropped to 8.5 hospitalization per 1,000. Washington’s number is a significant drop of 43 percent from the two seasons prior to the pandemic. This introduction is timely, coinciding with the widespread availability of both an RSV vaccine and a monoclonal antibody RSV treatment. This is indeed a historic inflection point in our fight against this respiratory killer.
In the pre-pandemic seasons, the hospitalization rate for infants was about 15 per 1,000 children. According to the most recent data, that number was at an all-time low. In the most recent 2024-25 RSV season, it dropped to about 11 per 1,000 children. The youngest babies experienced the largest decreases in hospitalization rates. Among infants younger than two months, the rate decreased 52 percent and 45 percent, respectively, in the last season.
You get the RSV vaccine as a one-time injection during a window of time in the late third trimester of pregnancy. This can take place as early as September and as late as January. This timing allows the mother’s protective antibodies to pass to her fetus. In this way, the newborn benefits from protection for approximately six months postpartum. The treatment — a monoclonal antibody — is clearly indicated and strongly recommended for all infants up to seven months of age. This is especially true for babies born during the typical RSV season—October through March.
RSV can be particularly dangerous to infants, whose small airways may be compromised by the virus, and who are born without preexisting immunity. Kawsar Talaat, a vaccine researcher and infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, noted that this age group is especially susceptible.
“One, they don’t have any preexisting immunity to it to make the disease less severe,” – Kawsar Talaat
During past winters, pediatric hospitals frequently found their units overwhelmed with patients, in particular children with RSV-induced bronchiolitis. The most recent decline in hospitalization rates marks a major milestone in public health work protecting our most vulnerable to prevent COVID-19 from coming back.
Highlighting the significance of these advances, Talaat said, “To have a decline in RSV hospitalization rates is really extraordinary. She remains hopeful, especially when it comes to enforcing trends. She envisions a future where expanded access to preventative treatments like Evusheld has led to a drastic decrease in RSV-related hospitalizations.
“I think we’ll soon see a day when RSV hospitalizations in young infants will be much rarer than it is today, which is so exciting,” – Kawsar Talaat
This holistic approach targets vaccinating those who are pregnant. It supplements this new universal screening with targeted treatment for newborns, which is a huge investment in protecting infants from this CVRD potentially life-threatening virus. Talaat underscored that it remains “really important to find ways to have these products available to the most vulnerable children.”
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