FDA approves first vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus

FDA approves first vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Health

Context:

The first of several expected vaccine options for preventing respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, in older adults has been approved by the FDA.

What is Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)?

• It belongs to the genus Orthopneumovirus within the family Pneumoviridae and order Mononegavirales
• RSV is a highly contagious virus that causes infections of the lungs and breathing passages in individuals of all age groups. RSV circulation is seasonal, typically starting during the fall and peaking in the winter.
• In older adults, RSV is a common cause of lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD), which affects the lungs and can cause life-threatening pneumonia and bronchiolitis (swelling of the small airway passages in the lungs)
• RSV is increasingly being recognized as an important pathogen in older adults, with infection leading to an increase in hospitalization rates among those aged 65 years and over, and to increased mortality rates among the frail elderly that approach the rates seen with influenza

RSV Vaccine:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Arexvy, the first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine approved for use in the United States.

Arexvy is approved for the prevention of lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in individuals 60 years of age and older.

The shot, called Arexvy, is made by the British pharmaceutical company GSK.

Two more vaccines for RSV by Pfizer and Moderna have already completed clinical trials on adults          older than 60 years and may soon be approved by the FDA.

While the vaccine developed by Pfizer is protein based, Moderna has used mRNA technology, like in the case of the SARS­ CoV­2 vaccine, to develop the RSV vaccine.