Responding to Higher-Than-Expected Infant Mortality Rates from Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV): Improving Treatment and Reporting Strategies

Abstract

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has a major role in respiratory infections in young infants around the world. However, substantial progress has been made in recent years in the field of RSV. A wide variety of observational studies and clinical trials published in the past decade provide a thorough idea of the health and economic burden of RSV disease in the developing world. In this review, we discuss the impact of RSV burden of disease, major gaps in disease estimations, and challenges in generating new therapeutic options and an immune response against the virus, and briefly describe next generation technologies that are being evaluated.

Keywords:

• respiratory syncytial virus
• vaccines
• prevention
• antivirals
• therapeutics

Disclosure

Dr Mauricio T Caballero has received grant support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.