SYDNEY, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) said on Friday that a new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination program has been a success after research showed declines in infant cases and hospitalizations.
According to the study, which was conducted by Macquarie University researchers and published in the Medical Journal of Australia, the 2025 NSW RSV prevention program drove a major decline in the number of RSV cases and hospitalizations among children younger than six months.
The program was launched in NSW in 2024 with free vaccinations for children younger than 24 months considered at high-risk of severe RSV and was expanded in 2025 to include free vaccinations for all pregnant women across Australia.
The research found that 62.7 percent of pregnant women in NSW received the free vaccine in 2025. It said there were 3,239 confirmed cases of RSV among infants in the state in 2025, down from 4,078 in 2023.
The number of infants hospitalized with RSV fell from 2,551 in 2023 to 1,609 in 2025.
"What that has shown is a fantastic reduction in illness and hospitalizations for our young babies," Kerryn Coleman, executive director of health protection at NSW Health, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"RSV infection in young babies can cause serious illness, neonatal intensive care unit admissions, many weeks in hospital and even can result in death for our young babies."
Separate data released on Wednesday by the Immunization Foundation of Australia (IFA) revealed that there were 83,678 confirmed RSV cases in people of all ages nationally in the first six months of 2026, surpassing influenza and COVID-19 as the most common respiratory virus.
Despite the high number of cases, it said that infant hospital admissions in April and May were 70 percent lower than in 2024. ■