RSV immunoprophylaxis in premature infants doesn’t prevent later asthma

Respiratory syncytial virus immunoprophylaxis in premature infants does not appear to prevent asthma at age 6 years, reported Nienke M. Scheltema, MD, of Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, Utrecht, the Netherlands, and associates.

In a study of 395 otherwise healthy premature infants who were randomized to receive palivizumab for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) immunoprophylaxis or placebo and followed for 6 years, 14% of the 199 infants in the RSV prevention group had parent-reported asthma, compared with 24% of the 196 in the placebo group (absolute risk reduction, 9.9%). This was explained mostly by differences in infrequent wheeze, the researchers said. However, physician-diagnosed asthma in the past 12 months was not significantly different between the two groups at 6 years: 10.3% in the RSV prevention group and 9.9% in the placebo group.

^{©Dr. Craig Lyerla/CDC}

This is the photomicrographic detection of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) using indirect immunofluorescence technique.

SOURCE: Scheltema NM et al. Lancet. 2018 Feb 27. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(18)30055-9.