When Joseph Scott was only 2 months old, he was hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus. His mother, Terra Keller, didn’t know much about the illness at the time, but she remembers how the experience made her feel.
“Very scary just to see your tiny little baby hooked up to so many machines, being forced air tubes everywhere, and just not really even being able to hold them,” Keller said.
Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is a common respiratory virus that in most cases causes cold-like symptoms. However, severe cases of RSV can lead to inflammation of the small airways or pneumonia—particularly in infants or older adults.
In the past four months in Monroe County, officials said there have been more than 4,000 confirmed cases of RSV, and nearly half of those cases were kids under five.
Joseph spent four days in the hospital before he was released.
Traumatic experiences like Keller's are pushing more parents of infant children to get the new RSV vaccine called Beyfortus. Beyfortus was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for infants younger than 8 months of age born during the RSV season or entering their first season.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the vaccine reduces the risk of severe infection by up to 75% with minimal side effects. However, the demand for the vaccine has begun to outweigh the supply, according to health care officials.
In Rochester and the Finger Lakes Region, parents like Nichole Huss have been waiting months to immunize their children. Lenni is four-month-old and Huss has been anticipating the time when she could be immunized.
“It's extremely important to protect my baby against anything that we can potentially protect her against,” Huss said. After hearing Keller’s story and many others, Huss is dreading having to live a similar fate.
“I really don't want to go through that with my brand-new family,” she said. “I’m hopeful that we will have that supply in future.”
U.S. Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer stopped by Rochester Regional Health on Monday to announce his two-pronged proposal to ending the RSV vaccine shortage in the area.
“Like any problem if you let it fester, it gets worse,” Schumer said.
The plan includes getting the CDC to start distributing more vaccine doses where there are shortages. Also, making the FDA change the supply chain to prioritize Beyfortus manufacturers.
“if we can do those two things, we'll never have to have another press conference like this, because we'll have enough of this drug, a lot of which is short because it's new,” Schumer said.
Now that Joseph is four years old, Keller said if the new vaccine was available back then her son would have gotten it to prevent what they went through. Now she’s advocating for other families to take advantage of the new medication.
“Given the worry and how scary it was seeing our tiny son not being able to breathe, I would encourage families to do the shot just to prevent that,” Keller said.
