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Infant RSV shot may be more effective than vaccines during pregnancy

When an RSV vaccine became available for use during pregnancy, it offered a natural experiment between various countries to see how it compared to a one-time antibody injection

3 June 2025

A one-time antibody injection against RSV is available for infants in some countries
Shutterstock / Anatta_Tan

An antibody treatment for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) appears to be more effective at protecting infants from severe illness than vaccination during pregnancy.

About 100,000 children worldwide under the age of 5 die from RSV each year. Currently, there are only two ways to immunise infants against the virus. The first is a vaccine given during pregnancy, which passes antibodies to the fetus and protects babies for the first six months of life. The second is a one-time antibody injection,…

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