RSV can be deadly, especially for older adults. What to know about symptoms and the new vaccine

First discovered in chimpanzees in 1956 and children the following year , respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), isn’t new. Neither is it uncommon among the youngest and oldest populations, infecting most babies and toddlers before their second birthday and accounting for the annual hospitalization of up to 160,000 U.S.

adults 60 and older . In recent years, however, COVID-19 has not only stolen the public health spotlight but also eclipsed the development of the first RSV vaccine. “[RSV] can be very risky, but people are not as aware of it as a virus in itself,” Dr.

Sujata Ambardar , an infectious disease specialist at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., tells Fortune . “They think of COVID, flu, and other viruses.

” Though Ambardar believes RSV awareness is on the rise, she says the existing lack of patient education—coupled with COVID- and flu-induced vaccine fatigue—may account for minimal interest in the trio of new RSV vaccines for people 60 and older. As recently as 18 months ago, no RSV vaccine existed. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the nation’s first RSV vaccine, GSK’s Arexvy , on May 3, 2023.

In a statement that day, Dr. Peter Marks , director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research , deemed the occasion “an important public health achievement to prevent a disease which can be life-threatening.” The FDA approved Pfizer’s Abrysvo on May 31, 2023, and exactly a year later did the same for Moderna’s mR.