Hospitals and pediatricians are facing a “severe shortage” of a vaccine meant to protect children from respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials in Connecticut.
“We have requested doses and not received all of the vaccines that we've requested from CDC,” according to Dr. Jody Terranova, deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health.
“It is very tough for the pediatricians’ offices,” said Terranova, a pediatrician herself. “They're giving them out as quickly as they're getting them.”
Terranova said on Monday that of the roughly 14,000 doses requested by Connecticut from the federal government, only about 10,000 have been received and distributed to health care providers and facilities.
Connecticut is currently seeing a rate of “moderate infection” from RSV, according to Dr. Chad McDonald, chief medical officer at InterCommunity Health Care in East Hartford.
“We're currently at a rate over the last five weeks at about 6.2% higher than our kind of baseline number, so we are increasing,” McDonald said at a Monday press conference.
The limited supply has prompted a group of seven U.S. senators, including Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal, to pen a letter imploring drugmakers Sanofi and AstraZeneca to make the drug, nirsevimab, more “easily and readily accessible.”
“This supply shortage is impacting large hospitals and small health clinics alike, which highlights a concern for equitable care and access,” Blumenthal and his colleagues wrote in the Nov. 17 letter. “It leaves parents searching for this immunization and desperate for an option to reduce risk of illness and save children’s lives. We must prioritize safeguarding our most vulnerable neonates, infants and children as we begin RSV season.”
In a statement to Connecticut Public, a Sanofi spokesperson said they had seen “unprecedented demand” for the drug.
“We look forward to discussing this situation with policymakers,” the company said. “Sanofi, along with our alliance partner AstraZeneca in charge of manufacturing, remain in close contact with the CDC and FDA to deliver doses for this RSV season.”
An AstraZeneca spokesperson said the company is on track to deliver all doses “initially ordered in the U.S.”
“We are committed to doing more, and we are pleased to confirm that in collaboration with the CDC and government agencies we are accelerating delivery of additional doses this calendar year,” the company said. “We will also continue to work to accelerate supply.”
Terranova said families should ask their hospitals and health care providers about the vaccine, and, if they can’t find the vaccine, to continue asking for their infants up to 8 months old.
“Maybe the pediatrician will get some when we get more in, so continue to ask,” Terranova said.
She also advised that pregnant people should ask their health care providers about receiving the vaccine in the last few months of their pregnancy, which would transfer immunity to the newborn.
RSV is the leading cause of hospitalization for infants in the United States, and transmission is on the rise, according to the CDC.
“RSV transmission has increased to seasonal epidemic levels in the Southern regions of the United States and is expected to continue to increase in the rest of the country within the next 1–2 months,” the agency said in an Oct. 23 advisory.
The state Department of Public Health said Monday one Connecticut resident, an adult, had died of the virus so far this season.
In addition to immunizing children and those at particular risk from RSV, including those with compromised immune systems and those over the age of 60, the CDC advises Americans to practice virus-conscious habits.
“Families should be aware of everyday preventive measures to limit the spread of RSV and other respiratory illnesses, including washing hands, covering coughs and sneezes, cleaning frequently touched surfaces, and staying home when sick,” the agency says.
