FRIDAY, Oct. 18, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- A global real-world study of the vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) finds it offers folks aged 60 and over 80% protection against severe illness and/or hospitalization. With U.
S. vaccination rates falling, "I encourage older adults to follow CDC guidance and get vaccinated for RSV as we enter this year’s and every year’s respiratory disease season," said study co-author Dr. Shaun Grannis .
Grannis is vice president for data and analytics at the Regenstrief Institute and a professor of family medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine. RSV has joined flu and COVID as a triumvirate of dangerous and common respiratory infections that can become serious, even life-threatening. There are very effective vaccines against all three viruses, however.
As noted in a Regenstrief news release, CDC data shows that, "in years prior to the availability of an RSV vaccine, an estimated 60,000 to 160,000 RSV -associated hospitalizations and 6,000 to 10,000 RSV-associated deaths occurred annually among U.S. adults aged 65 years and older.
" The new findings are based on data supplied by some of America's biggest health care networks -- Permanente Northwest (Oregon and Washington), the University of Colorado (Colorado), Intermountain Healthcare (Utah), the Regenstrief Institute (Indiana), HealthPartners (Minnesota and Wisconsin), and Kaiser Permanente Northern California (California). Altogether, they represent 230 hospitals and 2.