Parents with babies up to a year will all receive an invitation in the coming period to have their baby punctured against the RS virus around 1 October. Children who are born now get the puncture within two weeks after their birth. Due to the RS virus, between 1,500 and 3,000 babies in the Netherlands end up in the hospital every year, of which 150 in intensive care.
RS virus stands for respiratory syncytial virus. This virus causes respiratory infections, so that babies can become seriously ill and even die. “Some children even end up with ventilation, for them it is really lace,” says youth doctor Marjan van de Poll of the GGD Drenthe. Moreover, there is no medicine against it. “If you get it, you really have to look.”
According to Van de Poll, every child gets the RS virus for his second birthday. “But especially for babies up to a year it is dangerous. Children who are getting older can very well.” Reason for the GGD to now give the youngest children antibodies.
The puncture is not a real vaccination, as with the flu shot. There you get substances injected, after which your body has to go to work. The puncture against the RS virus consists of ready-made antibodies. As a result, no side effects actually arise.
“They already use this injection in Belgium and France. There you can see that the number of hospital admissions has fallen by eighty percent,” the GGD youth doctor knows. “We also have experience with it in the Netherlands. Vulnerable babies already got a shot here.”
The RS virus is mainly in the period between October and April. That is why babies born from April 1, now receive a call for a shot. “We really take into account that they are babies. We use a shorter needle and they can sit on a parent if they are punctured,” says Van de Poll.
Babies who are born from now on can get the puncture in it within two weeks after birth during a home visit from the GGD.