Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccination programme

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccination programme

!!General holding information for RSV programme in anticipation of development work!!
The new vaccination programme against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) begins on 1st September 2024. 
The virus is perhaps more commonly known about in young children, while the majority of this programme is about protecting adults.

Eligibility

There are two core groups of eligible patients, although in fact there are several cohorts to be aware of.
  1. Routine born on or after 01/09/1949 and aged 75
  2. Catch up born between 01/09/1944 and 31/08/1949 and age 75-79
  3. Catch up born between 02/09/1944 and 01/09/1945 and age 80
  4. Pregnant women who are at least 28 weeks pregnant
The 3rd cohort listed here is a one-off group who remain eligible until 31/08/2025 of patients who had their 80th birthday before they were able to receive a vaccination (but they were aged 79 on 01/09/2024)

Older adults

In Autumn 2024 as a rule, all patients aged 75 to 79 will be eligible to receive the vaccine. It appears there are few contraindications to the vaccine.

Pregnancy

The cohort of patients who are at least 28 weeks pregnant is expected to be managed by maternity services, but Practices will need to ensure that all patients under their care have been offered the vaccination. It is known that some pregnancies continue to slip through the net where there is little contact with primary care. From a technical standpoint, this group will be difficult to identify automatically in a search since search rules for pregnancy are not reliable enough to determine how far along somebody is.

The rationale for this group - much like the pertussis vaccination programme - is to confer immunity from mother to child. Vaccination as soon as possible

Coding

As of July 2024 the following codes relating to RSV vaccination are available:
SNOMED
Term
1303503001
Administration of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccine
1853501000000105
RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccination declined
1853511000000107
RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccination contraindicated

Noting the importance of successfully managing a call/recall programme, Primary Care IT submitted a request in early July 2024 for new SNOMED CT concepts to be created to document that invitations had been sent. A total of 6 concepts have been proposed which mirror the range of codes for the shingles vaccination programme.








  1. Passive immunisation, so unlikely to have any interactions with other vaccinations if given simultaneously
  2. See under Dosage and schedule - current recommendation is to (where possible) start after calendar week 40 (late September/early October). This may conflict with proposals for flu, however this may relate to existing provision for childhood immunisation as opposed to immunising adults.
Chapter 27a was last published September 2015, so likely due a major overhaul!


  1. #50184 submitted by PCIT 04/07/2024 asking for SNOMED concepts along the same lines as for shingles.

There are two separate RSV vaccination programmes:

  1. Programme for older adults: All adults aged 75 on or after 1 September will be eligible for the vaccine as well as a catch up campaign for those already aged 75-79. This will be delivered via GP practices
  2. Programme for pregnant people to protect infants: All those that are at least 28 week pregnant will be eligible for the vaccine. This will be delivered via maternity services and via GP practices opportunistically or on request.

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