ABPI welcomes RSV national vaccination programme

The government has announced a new national respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination programme.

The UK's national programme will protect newborns and older adults against RSV.

Welcoming the news, Dr Amit Aggarwal, Executive Director of Medical Affairs at the ABPI said: “This new vaccination programme will help protect the health of children and older adults, and help the NHS deal with the significant pressures it faces every winter.

“Each year more than 33,000 children under 5 and 14,000 over 65s are hospitalised because of RSV and sadly, some do not survive. [1,2]

“The impact of RSV on the NHS each winter is enormous, causing knock-on delays to elective care and hindering efforts to bring down the backlog.

“Decades of research to discover, develop and test vaccinations to prevent severe RSV disease have led us to the point where the NHS is now able to launch this programme.[3]

“The priority now is to get these vaccines to the people who need them in a timely and equitable way, so that we can protect as many young children and older adults as possible from this disease.”

[1] Department of Health and Social Care, Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) immunisation programme for infants and older adults: JCVI full statement, 11 September 2023, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rsv-immunisation-programme-jcvi-advice-7-june-2023/respiratory-syncytial-virus-rsv-immunisation-programme-for-infants-and-older-adults-jcvi-full-statement-11-september-2023  

[2] House of Lords, Respiratory syncytial virus and its impact on the NHS, June 2022, available at: https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/respiratory-syncytial-virus-and-its-impact-on-the-nhs/

[3] Nature.com, The road to approved vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus, September 2023, available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-023-00734-7