The monoclonal antibody given to infants to prevent severe RSV appears to deliver a second benefit that was not its design goal: fewer antibiotic prescriptions. Researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found that infants who received nirsevimab had 14.4 percent fewer antibiotic prescriptions for outpatient acute respiratory tract infections than those who did not.
The reductions were larger for more specific conditions. Antibiotic prescribing for outpatient bronchiolitis fell 40.3 percent, and antibiotic prescribing during RSV-related hospitalizations fell 69.4 percent, though the latter estimate had a very wide confidence interval ranging from 4.8 percent to 90.1 percent. The findings were published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
