‘Very exciting and very timely’: Saskatchewan set to roll out newborn RSV immunizations

A new tool to protect Saskatchewan’s youngest residents from RSV will soon be available. Carla Shynkaruk has the story.

A new tool to protect Saskatchewan’s youngest residents from a serious respiratory virus will soon be available.

Starting Oct. 1st, all newborns in the province will be offered a Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine before leaving the hospital.

“The fact we’re getting geared up to try to prevent this, and have an impact is very exciting and very timely,” Provincial Head of Pediatrics Dr. Terry Klassen says.

The shot will be administered by nurses at 17 birthing sites across Saskatchewan.

“It’s not the classic vaccine where you give a protein and you develop the immune system,” Dr. Klassen adds. “It’s actually an anti-body that’s been developed. that goes against the virus. It’s a bit more of a passive process where you inject the actual anti-body. and then over months, whenever the child might see the virus, the anti-body is there and can attack it and reduce the problem that the child might have with it.”

Tara Johnson’s daughter contracted RSV when she was in grade one. She had other serious conditions affecting her heart and immune system, and had to visit the hospital weekly for shots to guard against RSV. According to Johnson, taking her to the hospital that often was a problem.

“She had really bad lungs when she was a baby,” Johnson explained. “She had lots of pneumonia, 11 times a year. She was hospitalized chronically.”

Her daughter Elara, who is now 15 years old, still battles the effects of that childhood illness.

With the new milestone RSV immunization starting in Saskatchewan in a few weeks, she wants parents to know how important it is.

“I wish that we had had this available to us when she was a baby. It would have prevented us from going to the hospital once a month, for three years, to get shots to protect her from RSV.”

The immunization is free of charge and requires parental consent.

The program will run into March, lasting during the months when RSV activity is at its peak.

RSV is one of the most common reasons babies are hospitalized during the winter months, often causing bronchiolitis or pneumonia, filling pediatric wards with sick kids mostly under two years of age.

“They can be hospitalized for several days,” says Dr. Klassen. “Some of them have to go to the intensive care unit and have to be put on a ventilator. So, it had a huge impact.”

He says in some cases children can die from RSV if there are other underlying health issues like heart disease, immune, neuromuscular or respiratory problems.

In a province with so many remote areas, Dr. Klassen sees this helping to lower the number of RSV patients being transported to hospital, saving the healthcare system the cost for that travel.

“It’s much more complex and difficult to get them to a place where they can get the care that they need.”

• Download the CTV News app to get breaking news alerts sent to your device

Other provinces like Ontario and Quebec have already implemented the program in recent months, with places like Australia and parts of Europe rolling it out in previous months.

For Johnson, who endured the realities of RSV with her child, she hopes other parents get their children immunized so they don’t have to experience the challenges her family did.

Information on the program is available through the SHA website.

https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/news-and-media/2025/may/06/saskatchewan-expands-rsv-immunization-program-for-infants

https://momsandkidssask.saskhealthauthority.ca/infant-child-health/specialty-care/respiratory-syncytial-virus-program