For the brand new examine, CDC researchers checked out RSV hospitalization charges throughout two totally different RSV surveillance networks of hospitals and medical facilities (referred to as RSV-NET and NVSN). They in contrast the networks’ hospitalization charges within the 2024–2025 RSV season to their respective charges in pre-pandemic seasons between 2018 and 2020. The evaluation discovered that amongst newborns (0–2 months), RSV hospitalizations fell 52 p.c in RSV-NET and 45 p.c in NVSN in contrast with the charges from the 2018–2020 interval. Nonetheless, when the researcher excluded knowledge from NVSN’s surveillance website in Houston—the place the 2024–2035 RSV season began earlier than the vaccine and therapy had been rolled out—there was a 71 p.c decline in hospitalizations in NVSN.

For a broader group of infants—0 to 7 months outdated—RSV-NET confirmed a 43 p.c drop in hospitalizations within the 2024–2025 RSV season, and NVSN noticed a 28 p.c drop. Once more, when Houston was excluded from the NVSN knowledge, there was a 56 p.c drop.

Lastly, the researchers checked out hospitalization charges for toddlers and kids as much as 5 years outdated, who would not have been protected by the brand new merchandise. There, they noticed RSV hospitalization charges had been truly larger within the 2024–2025 season than within the pre-pandemic years. That implies that the newest RSV season was extra extreme, and the drops in toddler hospitalizations could also be underestimates.