FDA approves RSV antibody, doctors say will help kids at risk and medical community | News

This fall, parents and pediatricians will have a new option to protect babies from a lung-attacking virus that is the leading cause of hospitalization in infants under a year old in the United States every year.

BARABOO, Wis. (WKOW) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new antibody to protect newborns from RSV, and local doctors said it comes after a lot of hospitalizations and clinic visits. 

The antibody is a single injection given before RSV season, which doctors say usually peaks in the fall and winter. 

Dr. Jason Ankumah-Saikoom is a pediatrician with SSM Health. He said the antibody will help kids at risk and the medical community at large. 

“It was about a 70% to 80% production risk of causing individuals need to be either seen in the clinic, go to the hospital or need advanced care for the respiratory,” he said. 

He said the antibody creates a defense system that the body would naturally have to produce itself. 

“So that way, when you get exposed to the virus, you already have the antibody ready to see the virus and to act upon it,” he said. “It shortens hopefully the duration of symptoms and the severity of the illness.”

He said the CDC still has to approve of the vaccine. But it should be available this fall.

He said kids under the age of two are the most at risk, so the vaccine is being focused on those individuals. 

“We’re trying to focus on the average population, which is usually kids under the age of two who have health risks that would potentially put them higher risk for complications if they end up having RSV,” he said. 

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