{"id":273778,"date":"2025-07-19T04:12:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T04:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273778\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T04:12:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T04:12:17","slug":"rsv-vaccine-to-be-offered-to-premature-babies-in-northern-ireland-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273778\/","title":{"rendered":"RSV vaccine to be offered to premature babies in Northern Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752661270_973_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/c5ac6350-63f2-11f0-b01d-c5dd8604a664.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Getty Images A baby boy is sleeping on a white sheet. He is wearing a white sleepsuit and has a blue hospital wristband\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The new programme will cover infants born very prematurely and too early to benefit from the RSV vaccination given to their mothers<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A vaccination programme to tackle respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is to be extended to cover premature babies born in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A long-acting injection is to be offered for eligible children from this autumn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">RSV is a common, but highly infectious, respiratory virus that affects the breathing system, particularly in young children and older adults.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">It infects 90% of children by the age of two and is one of the leading causes of hospitalisation in the first year of life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">An RSV vaccine has been available to pregnant women in Northern Ireland since last September and is offered from 28 weeks of pregnancy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The new programme will cover those infants born very prematurely and too early to benefit from the RSV vaccination given to their mothers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The single Nirsevimab injection offers about 80% protection and replaces Palivizumab, which gives 55% protection and is administered up to five times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">It follows advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752661270_973_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/7494e780-63ed-11f0-b01d-c5dd8604a664.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Pacemaker Press A man is sitting at a table. He wears glasses and has a black suit on and a stripped tie.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Pacemaker Press<\/p>\n<p>NI&#8217;s chief medical officer says there has been a decline in the uptake of childhood immunisations<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Chief Medical Officer Sir Michael McBride said: &#8220;Vaccinations have been extremely effective in eradicating diseases and protecting children and other vulnerable groups from serious illness and death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;Worryingly, we are now seeing a decline in the uptake of childhood immunisations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;Vaccinations offer children the very best start in life. Quite simply, if children aren&#8217;t vaccinated, they&#8217;re not protected.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said the new vaccine would strengthen winter preparedness in the health service and reduce pressures on GPs, emergency departments and hospital admissions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images The new programme will cover infants born very prematurely and too early to benefit from the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-273778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114877952657214595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}