The Immunisation Foundation of Australia says a pre-winter surge in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections among people most vulnerable to severe lung disease could significantly increase hospitalisations for related pneumonia and bronchiolitis.
As Australia marks RSV Awareness Week (2-8 June), more than 47,000 notifications in children under five have already been reported. More than 13,000 notifications in people aged 60 and over have also been reported.
“At the start of winter, we’ve already recorded nearly two-thirds the total number of RSV cases reported in 2023. This is well ahead of the normal curve,” said Dr Lisa McHugh, infectious diseases and perinatal epidemiologist at the University of Queensland.
“We anticipate RSV infections to climb as temperatures drop. We should also expect a surge in presentations to hospitals among those not protected against severe RSV,” she said.
The foundation has welcomed reports that Western Australia and Queensland, two states with all-infant RSV immunisation programs, report lower rates of related hospitalisation in babies.
“Hospitalisation data from Western Australia shows a low rate of infant admission due to RSV for this time of the year,” said Catherine Hughes AM, the founder and director of the Immunisation Foundation of Australia.
More than 10,000 infants in Western Australia have been immunised against severe RSV, with a similar uptake in Queensland. The foundation said this could prevent one hospital admission for every 25 babies immunised.
The states procured doses of Sanofi's BEYFORTUS, along with New South Wales, but an RSV vaccine is yet to navigate national health technology assessment processes.
“The message is clear – infant RSV immunisation keeps babies out of hospital,” said Ms Hughes, whose three-week-old daughter was hospitalised with severe RSV in 2016, 18 months after the death of her son Riley from whooping cough.
The foundation has calculated that nationwide access to and uptake of infant RSV immunisation could prevent around 10,000 infants under 12 months from being admitted to hospital annually.
Data collected during the European and the US winters showed an 80 to 90 per cent fall in childhood hospitalisations due to severe RSV following the rollout of infant immunisations.
Ms Hughes warned that without national RSV immunisation programs for infants and the elderly, Australia would fail to realise the potential of a new era of RSV protection.
“It’s wonderful that for the first time we can protect babies and the elderly from RSV, but it’s not sustainable to have infant immunisation programs in some states and not others, nor to ask older Australians to pay hundreds of dollars each year for RSV protection,” she said.
