More than 30,000 children were vaccinated in the first month and a half of the 2025/2026 Immunization Campaign against the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), as revealed by data from mainland Portugal released this Monday by the Directorate-General of Health (DGS).
“This result marks a significant step in protecting the young ones against severe disease associated with RSV, whose peak season is expected to start soon. Immunization is the most effective way to prevent complications and hospitalizations, contributing to reduced healthcare demand and a healthier winter,” stated the health authority in a statement to the media.
The DGS noted that with these numbers, “we are approaching the initial goal to protect around 68,000 eligible children from RSV infection by March 31, 2026.”
The agency also recalled that the campaign, which began on September 16, includes “immunization in public, private, and social maternity wards for children born between September 16, 2025, and March 31, 2026, and in National Health Service (SNS) institutions for children born between June 1, 2025, and September 15, 2025, as well as children with defined risk factors.”
The DGS emphasized that “RSV infection occurs more frequently in the fall and winter months, when other respiratory and gastrointestinal viruses are also circulating, potentially leading to severe illness and hospitalization in young children, premature infants, and children with increased risk factors.”
In the 2024/2025 campaign, 86% of eligible children were immunized.
‘It primarily affects healthy children up to two years old. As cases rise in the United States, Gustavo Januário, a senior hospital assistant in pediatrics and head of the infectious diseases clinic at the Pediatric Hospital of Coimbra, warns about the disease’s implications and offers advice to parents.
Ana Rita Rebelo | 07:29 – 03/11/2022
