What you need to know about the spread of RSV

Along with flu, RSV is the most common reason children end up in hospital with a respiratory illness. See why a major outbreak of the virus is putting pressure on Australia’s hospitals.

WHAT IS RSV?

RSV is a common cold like virus most children catch before the age of two and it was recently made a notifiable disease because it can cause bronchiolitis, pneumonia and occasionally death.

“Alongside the flu it is the most important reason for children going to hospital for a respiratory virus,” Associate Professor Britton said,

In children aged under five both influenza and RSV are a bigger problem than Covid.

WHAT DO PARENTS NEED TO LOOK OUT FOR?

“If you have a child who has a cold and after one or two days, you think they’re breathing fast, those children need to be assessed and the highest risk group are the children under six months of age,” Associate Professor Britton said.

IS THERE A TEST?

Yes. A nasal swab can be tested for up to 20 different respiratory viruses including Covid, the flu and RSV.

RSV is one of the major reasons children are hospitalised for respiratory issues in Australia.

HOW SERIOUS IS RSV?

Hospitalisation rates, for RSV are just as high as for the flu with 10 per cent of young children and the elderly who catch it ending up in hospital.

A 2019 Medical Journal Australia study found between 2006–2015, there were 63 814 people hospitalised with RSV 60 551 (94.9 per cent) were children aged under five.

CAN IT RESULT IN DEATH?

In the decade between 2006 and 2015 the virus killed 138 people, including 82 elderly people.

IS THERE A TREATMENT?

There is no medicine for the virus and children with serious forms of the virus are treated with steroids to control inflammation caused by the virus and are given oxygen in hospital to keep their airways open.

There is currently no vaccine against RSV.

IS THERE A VACCINE?

There is currently no effective vaccine against RSV but many are under development.

WHAT MEDICAL TREATMENTS ARE ON THE HORIZON FOR RSV?

There’s are currently around 50 different treatments, therapies vaccines on the horizon for the virus said Sydney University’s Dr John Eden.

Some of them target the spike protein the virus uses to get into cells, others stop the virus replicating.

“In the end it’ll probably be one of these vaccines that kind of become the most important tool,” Dr Eden said.

Moderna, which made one of the most successful Covid jabs, has shown interest in a vaccine for RSV and Johnson and Johnson is looking at using the adenovirus scaffold they used for their Covid vaccine to develop one for RSV, Dr Eden said.