A single-shot treatment to protect infants from RSV may be coming soon

Each year, RSV infections send up to 80,000 kids under 5 to the hospital for emergency treatment. A new antibody treatment could protect the youngest kids — newborns and up infants up to 2 years old. (Christoph Soeder/dpa/picture alliance via Getty I)

Cheryl Meany, a high school teacher from Camillus, N.Y., was excited when she learned she was carrying twins in 2014. But her joy quickly turned to worry as doctors flagged several health concerns, including possible brain lesions.

So she needed a moment to process when her husband, a respiratory therapist, proposed enrolling the soon-to-be-born babies in an experimental study for an unrelated illness. It was a trial for a protective treatment for RSV or respiratory syncytial virus, a common respiratory virus that can be quite severe in young children.