All newborns to receive medicine against RS virus

All newborns will from next winter receive preventive medicine against RS-virus, according to a new recommendation.

» Published: March 18 2025

All newborns to receive medicine against RS virus
Photo: Christine Olsson/TT

This can lead to significantly fewer small children needing hospital care due to this type of respiratory infection, reports Sveriges Radio's Ekot.

Almost all children are infected with RS virus before the age of two, and approximately every fiftieth infected child becomes so severely ill that hospital care becomes necessary, according to Jonas F Ludvigsson, pediatrician in Örebro and professor at the Karolinska Institute.

With preventive treatment, the number of hospital admissions among these children can be reduced by approximately two-thirds, he estimates.

I think it's very gratifying, he says to the radio about the new recommendation.

The NT Council, an expert group mandated to provide recommendations on new medicines to Sweden's regions, had previously considered that preventive medicine for all newborns would be too expensive, but a new assessment was made on Monday.

Loading related articles...

Tags

TTT
By TTTranslated and adapted by Sweden Herald
Loading related posts...