Authors: Martha Powell, Future Science Group
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) can cause serious respiratory infections and has a significant burden worldwide, with RSV being the second largest cause of death in infants less than 1 year of age. In addition, the virus can develop into severe disease in vulnerable populations such as immunocompromised individuals and in the elderly.
A vaccine presents a cost-effective solution to reducing the burden of RSV, as currently options for both prevention and treatment are limited. In terms of treatment, a prophylactic RSV-specific neutralizing antibody is known to be effective at reducing morbidity in infants; however, it is currently limited to use in high-resource settings owing to expense and challenges in delivery.
Although there are currently no licensed vaccines for RSV, recent years have seen a focus on the field and there are several clinical candidates under development. Here, we take a look at the RSV vaccines currently in the clinical pipeline in our infographic.
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