Ellen Phiddian
Cosmos science journalist
A US study has found that vaccination against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) lowers the risk of hospitalisation in people over 60.
The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
RSV is a highly infectious disease that usually causes mild illness, but can be serious in young children and older adults.
Vaccines for RSV are a relatively new invention, with the US CDC recommending their use for adults over 60 and pregnant people last year.
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration followed suit this year.
In this study, US researchers analysed the medical records of 2,978 adults aged 60 and older who had been hospitalised with a respiratory illness between October 2023 and March 2024. (The CDC recommended RSV vaccination for this demographic in June 2023.)
Among the population, 367 people tested positive to RSV while 2,611 were used as a control group.
After a statistical analysis, the researchers found that people who had been vaccinated were significantly less likely to be hospitalised with RSV.
The researchers say that this result helps to expand on pre-licence clinical trial data for the vaccines.
“This study provides initial data to inform ongoing risk-benefit analyses of RSV vaccines for older adults,” write the researchers in their paper.
