STOP RSV

Stop RSV: Let the Science Talk!

Achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.2 in the five years remaining to 2030 will require a roughly one-third reduction in global child deaths—from the current 5 million to 3.3 million.* Action is most urgently needed in the 60 countries which are off-track to meet the target, including 45 in Africa, as reported by UNICEF.

Further, with child deaths projected to rise by more than 200,000 in 2025 to 4.8 million, and with global health financing under pressure, urgent action is needed to scale interventions that can reduce child mortality quickly, cost-effectively, and sustainably, especially in the off-track countries.

Expanding coverage of vaccines that prevent pneumonia—the leading infectious killer of children under five—is a critical opportunity. In 2023, pneumonia caused an estimated 610,000 child deaths, with 30% occurring among newborns and 70% among children aged 1–59 months, according to the Global Burden of Disease. 

Although vaccines have driven roughly 40% of the decline in child mortality since 1990, pneumonia vaccines have fallen short of their lifesaving potential due to delayed introduction and low coverage.

Of the 14 vaccines that have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years, pneumonia vaccines account for just 3%, including 2.8 million lives saved by the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine and 1.6 million by the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). Yet new estimates indicate that scaling PCV and new Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines to full coverage could prevent 3.4 million child deaths by 2045. 

With PCV coverage at 67%, far below the IA2030 target of 90%, and no low- or middle-income countries apart from Argentina and Brazil introducing the RSV vaccine, closing these gaps could dramatically increase the contribution of pneumonia vaccines to the child mortality reductions required for SDG achievement.

To accelerate uptake of RSV vaccines, Stop RSV: Let the Science Talk! is bringing together leading scientific experts in RSV vaccination to share their views on the impact of these vaccines. Content will be distributed directly to policy makers and other decision-making audiences.

Goal 

The group is guided by an overarching goal:

Increase awareness of the new RSV maternal vaccine and its impact on saving lives and reducing healthcare costs to motivate governments with large numbers of RSV hospitalizations and deaths to commit to introducing RSV vaccine by 2030.

Countries targeted will include those with more than 400,000 child RSV episodes and high coverage of four antenatal visits (ANC) among pregnant women, including:

• Egypt (698,000 RSV cases/90% ANC)
• Philippines 561,000 RSV cases/83% ANC)
• India (6.2M RSV cases/58% ANC)
• Mexico (530,000 RSV cases/94% ANC)
• South Africa (RSV cases 413,231/76% ANC) 
• Brazil (790,000 RSV cases/92% ANC), AsBrazil introduced RSV vaccine in December 2025, it can inform uptake in the other target countries.

An additional eight countries who are also members of the Maternal Immunisation Readiness Network in Africa & Asia (MIRNA) will be targeted, including Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Pakistan, Bangladesh. Burkina Faso, and Nigeria. Close partnership with MIRNA will ensure these efforts are complementary.

*In 2030 there will be an estimated 131,000,000 live births according to UN World Population Prospects. Achieving a child mortality rate of 25 child deaths for every 1,000 babies born in 2030 translates into 3.3 million child deaths in that year.

Members

We, the undersigned vaccine scientists, pediatricians, infectious disease experts, maternal health specialists, economists, and public health leaders, are joining forces around a shared goal: to STOP RSV.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the leading causes of pneumonia in infants worldwide. Every year, RSV causes an estimated 33 million lower respiratory tract infections, more than 3.6 million hospitalizations, and over 100,000 deaths among children under five years of age — with the greatest burden falling on babies in the first months of life. The overwhelming majority of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

For decades, health systems had few tools to prevent RSV in newborns and young infants. That has now changed. The arrival of maternal RSV vaccination represents one of the most important breakthroughs in child survival and maternal immunization in a generation.

We are coming together because the evidence is now too strong to ignore.

Maternal RSV vaccination works. It saves lives. It prevents severe disease during the most vulnerable first months of infancy. And it substantially reduces the burden on hospitals and overstretched health systems, especially in LMICs where the systems are weak.

Trial data from 18 middle- and high-income countries demonstrated dramatic reductions in infant hospitalizations following the introduction of the RSV maternal vaccine. The risk of hospitalization was reduced by 68% within 3 months after birth and by 57% within 6 months after birth. Infant ICU admissions for RSV fell by 82% within 3 months and by 69% within 6 months after birth.  

Read the rest of the Statement from Stop RSV: A Coalition of Vaccine Scientists and Child Health Experts here.

Published for the World Health Assembly, May 2026