TAMPA, Fla. — Many health officials are disappointed that new, preventive RSV medicines weren’t able to be utilized as widespread as they had hoped.
“RSV has been bad. It’s been bad this whole season. The hospitalizations have increased, to the point where they’ve really outclassed flu and COVID,” said Dr. Jill Roberts, associate professor for the USF College of Public Health.
RSV can be particularly dangerous for babies and people over the age of 60.
“We’re definitely at the tail end of RSV season,” said Dr. Juan Dumois, Pediatric Infectious Disease Physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hosptial.
While the spread is slowing, RSV season isn’t totally over yet.
“There are definitely kids that are testing positive for RSV still,” said Dumois.
Doctors were hopeful that there would be fewer severe RSV cases this season and that more people would be better protected against the virus.
That’s because, for the first time, there are new preventative treatments on the market, including a vaccine for adults over 60 and pregnant people that researchers have been working on for decades.
There was also an injectable monoclonal antibody shot for babies 8 months and younger.
“We knew that there going to be some new tools to fight RSV, but then suddenly we ended up plagued by issues with actually getting them out to people,” said Roberts.
Experts believe that’s partly due to problems with the supply chain and drug manufacturers not being able to meet the demand.
“The second issue for it is because it’s a new medication; sometimes, there can be some issues around actually paying for it. So there were questions about what was the cost, who’s reimbursing, is it being paid under Medicare, Medicaid, is it part of the Vaccines for Children Program?” said Roberts.
Doctors said miscommunication and confusion over timing also led to not enough people having that extra protection.
Now, health officials are looking ahead and preparing for the next RSV season, hopeful those preventative measures will be more accessible.
“An extra year will give doctors more time to become familiar with these treatments and their availability,” said Dumois
“Plus, I think on the clinical side of things, there will be a little bit more tuning with who really needs it. So one thing that the CDC had to do to actually adjust that really high demand was define very closely or very carefully who gets it. There’s a high risk of RSV being dangerous in people who are older than the age 60 or very, very young, but that’s increased drastically if those persons happen to have some other issues, like lung disease and neurological diseases and things along that line. So when you get into a shortage, you really start to tighten who is eligible, right?” said Roberts.
Officials said the drug companies have been working out the kinks and plan to have better supply in the fall and winter.
