Northern B.C. doctor calls for RSV shots to be available to all infants 

When Dr. Patrick Hemmons's daughter Saoirse was born pre-term late last year, he wanted to protect her ahead of the coming respiratory illness season. 

Hemmons, who is a family physician practising in northern British Columbia, wanted to get her a dose of nirsevimab, which can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). But the monoclonal antibody is not widely available in the province, and Hemmons had to travel to a clinic in Seattle, Wash., to secure a dose for his daughter.

"We were pretty worried before and especially with RSV cases rising throughout the province," Hemmons said.

"It's kind of a shame that we had to — in northern B.C. — fly down to Vancouver, drive across down to Seattle and all this hassle to get something that is recommended as something that all infants in Canada should have access to." 

RSV usually causes a minor cold, but can lead to severe illness in vulnerable groups. Older adults and newborns are among those most at risk.

"In young babies, especially during the first few months of life, it's the time when they're most vulnerable for the virus to get from their upper respiratory tract and get down into the lungs," said Dr. Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Montreal Children's Hospital. 

Nirsevimab is made by AstraZeneca and distributed in Canada by pharmaceutical company Sanofi, under the name Beyfortus. 

It was approved by Health Canada in April 2023 and recommended for all infants in their first RSV season — the fall and winter. Health Canada says nirsevimab has shown an 80 per cent reduction in medically attended RSV respiratory tract infection in healthy infants.

Ontario, Quebec and the territories have negotiated contracts to offer nirsevimab for free to all infants.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), which advises the federal government, decided in May not to recommend nirsevimab for all infants at its current Canadian list price of $952.

Instead, it said to prioritize higher-risk infants, like premature babies, and eventually work toward "a universal RSV immunization program for all infants."

"It's safe and it's something that we would hope to get for all Canadian infants. But again, it is important that the price be such that it would actually be cost effective to implement this intervention because we want to make sure that we're using our health-care dollars in an efficient manner," Papenburg said. 

"Cost effectiveness is certainly one of the things that needs to be evaluated when it comes to any sort of public health [measure]."

Hemmons said even though his daughter was at risk for contracting RSV because she was pre-term, she wasn't considered high-risk enough to qualify for nirsevimab in B.C.