New RSV vaccination programme for those aged 75 and over and pregnant people

Last year the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that a national RSV vaccination programme should be introduced for infants and older adults to help reduce the number of hospitalisations caused by the disease.

The letter published today provides more detailed information about the new vaccination programme that will be introduced from 1 September 2024 for older adults and during pregnancy for infant protection.

The full letter is available here:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/respiratory-syncytial-virus-rsv-vaccination-programme

There are two separate RSV vaccination programmes:

• 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
• 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.

To help support the delivery of these programmes, there is a webinar for health professionals:

• 12 July 2024 (14:30 – 15:45): Adult RSV programme: introduction of a new immunisation programme. A webinar for health professionals.
  • Register to join here

All adults turning 75 years old on or after 1^st September 2024 will be eligible for the routine programme. A one-off catch-up campaign for those already aged 75 to 79 years old on 1^st September 2024 will also be undertaken.

This campaign will be commissioned from general practice as an essential service, starting from 1^st September 2024.

In addition, NHS England will be commissioning a number of community pharmacies to deliver the programme. Further details will be shared in due course, we expect this commissioning to be similar to how Covid vaccinations were in the early days.