Almost every baby gets RSV in the first year of
life. And in fact, we all get it
, and we all might have mild symptoms, but
in babies, you get inflammation of the airways.
And if you think about our airways, they're really
big, and so a little bit of inflammation just
gives us a cough. With smaller babies, the
airways can be only a few millimeters wide, and
if you get a little bit of inflammation, it
can start to, uh, make it difficult for
air to move through. And babies start to struggle
with their breathing, and it's really scary for parents
. So premature babies are some of the most vulnerable
patients we've got within the NHS and they're 10 times
more likely to require intensive care if they do get
RSV. And uh we've been really lucky in that
we're running a national program for immunization, so mothers
can be uh immunized. The problem is, is
that the premature babies are delivered before the immunization's given
. And so what this means is that those 7000
, 8000 babies in that position we can now give
them protection.