GP Connect Clinical Feature from Professor Paul Effler, MD, MPH, FAFPHM, Senior Medical Advisor, Communicable Disease Control Directorate, WA Department of Health
During the month of April, less than half of all immunisation encounters for age-eligible infants resulted in nirsevimab being co-administered with routine childhood vaccinations. According to data in the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR), there were 4,611 immunisation encounters at which nirsevimab might have been co-administered to age eligible infants but was not; in 90 per cent of those encounters the child had received two or fewer vaccination injections at that visit.
The reasons that nirsevimab is not co-administered to age-eligible infants at routine immunisation encounters is likely to be due to multiple factors, including parental preference. However, published data from overseas and anecdotal reports from WA providers indicate a very high rate of acceptance when nirsevimab is offered to parents of newborns.
The fact that nirsevimab was administered with other childhood immunisations on 3,957 occasions in April suggests many WA parents are comfortable with co-administration of nirsevimab.
Historically RSV transmission is widespread in WA by June, so every effort should be made to administer nirsevimab to age-eligible children before June.
Immunisation providers are strongly encouraged to recommend co-administration of nirsevimab for all eligible children presenting for routine childhood vaccinations during May. If an age-eligible infant is not scheduled for a routine vaccination visit in May, providers should actively recall these vulnerable infants so they can be protected before RSV season begins.
BREAKING NEWS… for every 25 infants given nirsevimab one RSV-related hospitalisation is prevented!
Real-world data from Spain just published in The Lancet show’s that nirsevimab was 82 per cent effective at preventing hospitalisation for RSV-related illness and 87 per cent effective against severe RSV illness requiring oxygen support. The study also found that for every 25 infants who received nirsevimab one RSV-related hospitalisation was prevented. This data indicates that if WA is successful in immunising 20,000 infants with nirsevimab, we can prevent about 800 hospitalisations this winter. This would be a wonderful outcome for WA families.
The Communicable Disease Control Directorate sincerely thanks the 675 providers who have already administered one or more doses of nirsevimab to a vulnerable WA infant.