By Michelle Gamage, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee Infants younger than six months old get hit the hardest with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, making up almost half of all patients hospitalized for the illness in Canada, according to a new study from the University of British Columbia. The peer-reviewed study, published recently in the Lancet Regional Health: Americas journal, found that infants under six months made up 45 per cent of the almost 29,300 patients hospitalized for RSV in Canada from 2017 to 2023. That\u2019s because infants\u2019 immune systems are still developing, their bodies are very fragile and they don\u2019t have any antibodies to fight off the virus, study lead author Nirma Khatri Vadlamudi told The Tyee. Vadlamudi led the study during her post-doctoral research at UBC\u2019s faculty… <\/p>\n
By Michelle Gamage, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee Infants younger than six months old get hit the hardest with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, making up almost half of all patients hospitalized for the illness in Canada, according to a new study from the University of British Columbia. The peer-reviewed study, published recently in the Lancet Regional Health: Americas journal, found that infants under six months made up 45 per cent of the almost 29,300 patients hospitalized for RSV in Canada from 2017 to 2023. That\u2019s because infants\u2019 immune systems are still developing, their bodies are very fragile and they don\u2019t have any antibodies to fight off the virus, study lead author Nirma Khatri Vadlamudi told The Tyee. Vadlamudi led the study during her post-doctoral research at UBC\u2019s faculty... <\/p>\n