Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 9 September 2024 to Question 3791 on Respiratory Syncytial Virus: Vaccination, whether he has received any advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on whether that vaccine should be extended to those children over one year old with spinal muscular atrophy type 1.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has not provided advice on whether the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine should be extended to children over the age of one year with spinal muscular atrophy type 1.

The JCVI considered a range of evidence in advising who should be offered an immunisation, including the impact of the vaccine in different age groups, as well as the capacity of the National Health Service to deliver the programme alongside other important healthcare priorities.

The vaccine for the national RSV programmes, Pfizer’s Abrysvo, is approved only for use in pregnant women, for infant protection, and older adults, following clinical trials in these groups. The JCVI has not provided advice on other groups, as the analysis that informed their advice looked at burden by age.

In June 2023, the JCVI advised that existing infant risk groups eligible for RSV monoclonal antibody immunisation should preferentially be protected with nirsevimab over palivizumab. While children over the age of one year with spinal muscular atrophy type 1 are not currently in the eligible cohort, the JCVI’s advice is that NHS specialised commissioning should work within the existing guidance on preventative treatment for children considered to be at equivalent risk based on clinical judgment. The JCVI may provide further advice on the use of RSV monoclonal antibody immunisation in risk groups outside of the current recommendations in the future.