CAMILLUS, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — According to the CDC, up to 80,000 kids will end up in the hospital with RSV every year.
A doctor at Upstate Medical University has spent years trying to prevent that. The research is closer to becoming reality, and a set of twins from Camillus were the first to test the tool.
Cheryl Meany had a complicated pregnancy.
She and her husband watched their friend’s kids fight RSV. So when their family friend, who was also running research on a promising new monoclonal antibody, asked if they wanted their twins to get it… they said yes.
“We did it right in the office, I dosed them myself,” said Doctor Joseph Domachowske.
Cassidy and Stella were dosed about a month after they were born.
Five years later, their parents learned they did get the antibody, not a placebo. Meany says she had an inkling, but never expected to hear what Dr. Domachowske said next.
“They were literally the first babies in the world to get it, which is pretty cool.”
Cheryl Meany
Turns out, only three babies in the northern hemisphere got the dose before open enrollment shut down in the region due to an influx of cases, and they were the first two.
As for the monoclonal antibody, Dr. Domachowske says it shows 80% protection against hospitalization for severe RSV.
It’s especially encouraging because he says about one in 50 healthy-term babies are admitted every year with the virus.
There are periods of time where 30 to 40 percent of kids in the hospital are in the hospital with RSV. We don’t have another infection where we have those rates of hospitalization.
Dr. Domachowske
The goal is to dose every infant before their first RSV season and hopefully, keep them out of the hospital.
Dr. Domachowske says a Biologics License Application was submitted at the end of September.
With the timetable research like this tends to follow, he says we may know in July or August if the monoclonal antibody gets the FDA’s approval.
