On the verge of RSV disease prevention: A communications toolkit

Note: Please refer to this web page for the most up-to-date version(s) of the communications materials, which are periodically updated to reflect the evolving vaccine landscape.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the world's top cause of severe respiratory infections and hospitalization in infants and young children. Groundbreaking products for preventing RSV disease in early life are now recommended for global use by the World Health Organization (WHO), including a vaccine given in pregnancy and long-acting monoclonal antibodies given to newborns. These tools are a chance to address this under-recognized cause of millions of childhood hospitalizations, thousands of deaths, and significant strain on livelihoods and health systems. Such progress is particularly important for low- and middle-income parts of the world, where nearly all RSV deaths occur. Next steps will be to ensure that these tools achieve global market entry to open the door for widespread use.

A communications toolkit to advance the global RSV conversation

With new products globally recommended, now is the time to raise awareness and support global, regional, and country decision-making around RSV prevention, policy, and implementation preparedness. To advance these efforts, WHO, PATH, and other contributors have developed a suite of communications materials that public health stakeholders and advocates can use to share information and raise awareness about RSV disease, new prevention tools, and delivery considerations. These include presentation slides and a fact sheet.

To accommodate varying audience and engagement needs, this toolkit includes a stand-alone RSV primer presentation (and fact sheet) providing an overview of RSV disease and prevention options.

Also available are modular PowerPoint slides that can be mixed and matched with the primer presentation to dive deeper into key topics for informing understanding and decision-making around RSV prevention.

All slides come with speaker notes.

The latest presentation slides are available here for immediate viewing in read-only format. Upon opening the file, just click on the read-only prompt to view the slides. Editable versions are available upon request.