A new study suggests vaccinating pregnant women protects their newborns from the common but scary respiratory virus called RSV.
Pfizer announced Tuesday that a large international study found vaccinating moms-to-be was nearly 82% effective at preventing severe cases of RSV in their babies' most vulnerable first 90 days of life. At age 6 months, the vaccine still was proving 69% effective against serious illness - and there were no signs of safety problems in mothers or babies.
None of the findings will help this year when an early RSV surge already is crowding children's hospitals. But they raise the prospect that one or more vaccines might become available before next fall's RSV season. A tragedy in the 1960s set back the whole field. Using the approach that led to the first polio vaccine, scientists made an experimental RSV vaccine by growing the virus in a lab and killing it. But testing in children found not only was the vaccine not protective, youngsters who caught RSV after vaccination fared worse. Two died.
It turns out that the immune system only forms effective RSV-fighting antibodies when it spots what's called the pre-fusion version of that protein, explained structural biologist Jason McLellan of the University of Texas at Austin.
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