Things you need to know about RSV
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Asia Tabb
Airdate: October 11, 2024
Respiratory Illness season is right around the corner and experts are urging the vulnerable population to get vaccinated. RSV causes symptoms such as a runny nose, fever, cough, and cold congestion. Dr. Robert Hopkins Jr, Medical Director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases says it spreads thorough respiratory secretions.
“Unfortunately, in people at the extremes of age, older adults and small children, it can cause severe pneumonia, hospitalization and other severe health complications. So we need to have some tools to prevent this from having an impact in our older adults, in our small children, “said Hopkins.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just updated new RSV vaccination recommendations.
“The CDC has recommended that all adults 75 and older get a dose of RSV vaccine and adults who are 60 to 74 years of age who have an immune system that’s been weakened by medication or by disease. If they have chronic heart disease, lung disease, liver disease or kidney disease, they may have diabetes with complications. And all of our older adults that happened to reside in a nursing facility, all of those folks need to have one dose of RSV vaccine. It’s not an annual vaccine, but one dose of RSV vaccine to reduce their risk for severe infection, “said Hopkins.
Sue Peschin, CEO and President of the Alliance for Aging Research urges family members to get their loved ones vaccinated even if they are living in nursing facilities.
I think the most important thing is for families to call the facility where their loved one is residing to make sure that they’re providing the vaccines at the facility. If they’re not, then they can take them somewhere local and folks can go to Vaccines.gov to find out where any of these vaccines are available in their local area, “said Peschin.
Medical experts say it is safe to get all your respiratory vaccinations done at one time, which is referred to as co-administration.
“You can getting multiple vaccines at the same time as what we call co-administration. And it is fine to do co-administration with RSV vaccine. With influenza. With Covid vaccine or any other vaccine that that adult needs. There’s no evidence that it reduces the effectiveness of the vaccines or that it necessarily increases risk for side effects. We want to get people vaccinated and get people protected as quickly as we can, “said Hopkins.
Dr. Hopkins also says RSV is extremely dangerous that can lead to hospitalization and death.
“Probably the most important is that RSV is not important. As a does it cause of disease of people other than newborns? RSV causes severe disease in people. It can cause severe diseases in people of all ages. The people at highest risk are infants and older adults. The second is there’s a common myth out there that vaccines can cause these diseases. The RSV vaccine cannot cause RSV. Influenza vaccine cannot cause influenza, and Covid 19 vaccine cannot cause Covid 19. The third is that getting an infection with RSV or flu or Covid gives you better protection or makes you stronger than getting a vaccine. That’s absolutely not true. Getting an infection puts you at risk of complications, hospitalization and secondary bacterial infections. Getting a vaccine stimulate your immune system to protect you against some of those adverse outcomes, “said Hopkins.
