The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Directorate General of Public Health of the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS), has immunized a total of 6,512 neonates and infants from all islands against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the last quarter of the year 2025. Of these, just over half a thousand babies were in Lanzarote.
RSV is a **highly contagious** virus, and it can be easily transmitted in the community, including daycare centers, schools, and homes. It is the **leading cause of acute lower respiratory tract infection** among children under one year of age, especially those related to bronchiolitis and pneumonia, for which there was previously no widespread pharmacological prevention measure, such as monoclonal antibodies.
For babies under eight months
Starting with the 2023-2024 season, this immunization is indicated for babies under eight months at the start of the RSV season (between October and March), for those born during this period, and for some babies between eight and nineteen months with a high risk of severe illness.
Of the total babies immunized in the last quarter of 2025, 2,680 resided in Tenerife, 2,614 in Gran Canaria, 507 in Lanzarote, 420 in Fuerteventura, 228 in La Palma, forty in La Gomera, and twenty-three in El Hierro
The Directorate General of Public Health acquires and manages all doses administered in the Autonomous Community each year, supplying health centers and hospitals where births are attended, both public and private.
Effective immunization
This strategy, with Spain as a pioneer, was launched after the European Commission authorized the use of the monoclonal antibody nirsevimab in October 2022, in light of the spectacular efficacy results observed in clinical trials for preventing RSV disease in newborns and infants.
Before having this preventive instrument, hundreds of infants each year required medical attention in primary care consultations and hospital emergency services, with many of them needing hospitalization (even in intensive care) due to the lung inflammation caused by RSV and, occasionally, dying as a consequence of this infection.
This virus also significantly impacts the population over 70 years of age, with vaccines already having been commercialized for adults.
In the last 30 years, no pharmacological preventive strategy can compare in impact to the immunization of infants and neonates with nirsevimab. It has marked a before and after in the burden of this disease, leading to the prevention of more than 80 percent of hospital admissions for this cause in children under one year of age, and its effect has also been significantly noted in the decrease in consultations, both in Primary Care and hospital emergency services
The use of this monoclonal antibody is currently a guarantee of protection against an infection for which, until very recently, no effective treatment was available, which is why Public Health authorities and healthcare professionals involved in child health continue to encourage citizens to administer this drug to the target population described.