Dr. Susan Kansagra, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer at ASTHO, shares an update on rising RSV activity and how states are tracking trends during the federal shutdown. She highlights new tools that protect infants, including maternal vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, and explains how public health and birthing hospitals are partnering to expand access through the Vaccines for Children program. Early results show increased hospital enrollment and fewer RSV related hospitalizations among infants.
Partnering with Birthing Hospitals to Protect Babies Against RSV
Aligning Strategic Plans Across Health, Aging, and Dementia
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This is Public Health Review
Morning Edition for Wednesday,
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November 12th, 2025 with news
from the Association of State
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and Territorial Health
Officials.
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I'm John Sheehan.
Today we'll be talking about
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RSV, respiratory syncytial
virus, with Doctor Susan
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Kensagra, Asto's Chief medical
officer.
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Especially this time of year, we
expect cases and RSV activity in
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general to increase.
But you know, it's a really
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interesting time actually right
now for the season because we're
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currently in a federal shutdown.
And that means that some of the
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dashboards that we've typically
had available on the CDC website
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to show us where we are
nationally in terms of activity
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for RSV, flu, COVID, other
respiratory diseases is not
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actually available.
But that being said, there are
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other data sources including
state dashboards that we are
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looking at.
There's also wastewater data and
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data from healthcare systems
that show us that RSV activity
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is indeed going up.
We're starting to see it creep
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up.
It's still pretty low right now,
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but this is the time of the year
where we would expect it to
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increase.
And particularly for the
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Southeast region of the US, we
are seeing that increase start
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now, which indicates we'll
likely see that in other parts
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of the country soon as well.
Public health officials have a
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variety of tools to combat RSV,
things like the vaccines for
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Children program.
We've seen a lot of successes as
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far as public health tools to in
healthcare tools to prevent RSV.
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So one of the things that we
know about RSV is that it is a
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leading cause of hospitalization
for infants and has
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historically, you know,
something that you can't really
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distinguish from a cold or, or,
you know, typically any other
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types of illness around this
time of year.
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But for infants and particularly
premature infants or others that
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might have chronic conditions,
it can lead to severe disease,
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difficulty breathing that leads
to hospitalizations, eating
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visits and so forth.
So we have new tools available
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to us in the last several years
and that includes both maternal
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RSV vaccine and includes RSV
monoclonal antibodies.
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So those two things have created
more protection for infants who
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are entering their first RSV
season in particular through the
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VFC program, which is of course
the vaccines for children's
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program.
Immunization programs across the
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country have worked to make sure
that birthing hospitals are
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enrolled in the program so that
they can provide monoclonal
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antibodies to babies being born
in their hospitals from the get
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go.
So there's been a lot of work
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and lots of partnerships
between, again, public health
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and healthcare institutions to
make sure monoclonal antibodies
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are available.
You know some of the ways that
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that has happened.
Again, we know for, you know,
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the VFC program, hospitals have
to enroll and of course, when
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you provide any type of medical
service, clinical service that
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requires protocols within the
hospital, it requires providers
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to educate parents and
caregivers.
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It requires upgrades to how they
document that information in the
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EHR.
So a lot of that work has
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happened over the course of the
last two years between public
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health departments and breathing
hospitals working together to
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ensure that RSV is available and
accessible to infants that are
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being born in those
institutions.
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So lots of great progress there.
And because RSV does not
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recognize state boundaries,
partnerships across state lines
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are essential.
So, you know, again, we know
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based on the data that RSV
monoclonal antibodies are
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really, really effective in
preventing hospitalizations.
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Some of the data from studies
show, you know, anywhere from
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40% effectiveness to even higher
effectiveness rates,
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particularly in very young
infants.
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And so public health departments
have partnered with hospitals
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and healthcare institutions and
provider organizations to help
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ensure that monoclonal
antibodies are available.
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We've seen, you know, really
creative partnerships with
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healthcare institutions to think
about how they enroll in the
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program, how they work with
providers to ensure that there's
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protocols that are in place to
make sure every infant is being
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screened for eligibility for
monoclonal antibodies.
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And then of course working on
documentation, tracking, supply
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chain, all those other things
you need to consider to make
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something like this available on
the ground in hospitals.
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So lots of partnerships and lots
of work by immunization programs
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across the country in
collaboration with providers to
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make it accessible.
You know, one of the ways that
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we are seeing that success by
immunization programs is that we
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have seen the number of
hospitals enrolled in the VFC
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program increase from 292 to
over 1000 birthing hospitals
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specifically in hold which has
enabled VFC monoclonal antibody
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to be provided through this
program in these institutions.
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So that is great progress that's
you know over tripling of that
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number and certainly there's
more work to do to enroll more
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hospitals, but that is 1, you
know measure of success in that
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we are seeing more institutions
enrolled in the program and and
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that enables them to provide VFC
monoclonal antibodies to those
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families.
So that's great news there as
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well.
And then, you know, overall,
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again, one of the things that
we've seen this past season,
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this past year where we had both
things, both maternal vaccine as
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well as monoclonal antibodies is
we've seen a lower RSV
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hospitalization rate for infants
that we have in the past.
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So that's a sign that, you know,
ideally points to the fact that
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we are seeing more
accessibility, we are seeing
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more uptake of these things, we
are seeing more impact.
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It's keeping kids out of the
hospital at the very youngest
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age and an opportunity to
further build on those
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successes.
Doctor Susan Kinsagra is Asto's
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chief medical officer.
If you want to learn more, visit
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ASTHO asto.org or check out our
show notes.
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The Association of State and
Territorial Health Officials and
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the Alzheimer's Association
published a new report
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introducing the Strategic Plan
Alignment Tool to help public
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health agencies better integrate
plans across state health,
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aging, and dementia.
Read about this structured
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framework to see how your
jurisdiction can simplify
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complex planning and boost
collective impact by clicking
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the link in the show notes.
I'm John Sheehan, and this has
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been Public Health Review
Morning Edition from the
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Association of State and
Territorial Health Officials.