Advocates are concerned about the price tag associated with the RSV vaccine in New Brunswick, especially for seniors on fixed incomes.
Cecile Cassista, with the New Brunswick Coalition for Seniors, said she has received calls from people unable to pay the $270 for it in New Brunswick.
“The big concern here is the seniors who are calling me, they do want that vaccine, but they can’t afford it,” she said in an interview Monday.
RSV severe in older adults
Respiratory syncytial virus is a severe and highly-contagious respiratory virus, especially for younger children and older adults, according to a report published by the National Institute on Aging (NIA).
On Aug. 4, Health Canada approved the first vaccine for RSV for adults aged 60 and over. The vaccine is called Arexvy, made by drug company GSK, and has been shown to be 82-per cent effective at preventing lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV.
But Cassista fears seniors who will opt to pay for the vaccine out-of-pocket to protect their health will risk their ability to pay for food and other essential items, including housing.
“It is extremely unaffordable because, what the message is here is that the government isn’t being proactive, is that we’re going to have an impact on our health-care system,” she said.
In fact, epidemiologist Susanne Gulliver said about 80 per cent of hospitalizations and deaths of respiratory viruses are seniors.
“We don’t have any good treatments for RSV so that is another reason why it is so important to vaccinate,” she said in an interview Tuesday.
She said once someone requires hospitalization for RSV, treatment becomes difficult, because there is no medication.
“We don’t have antivirals that are effective enough to have a treatment — like when you get bacterial pneumonia, we have a whole range of antibiotics we can treat them with, but with RSV that’s not an option.”
Gulliver believes the cost of hospitalization should be motivation enough for governments to properly be funding vaccines like the one for RSV.
Waiting for NACI recommendation
New Brunswick’s Department of Health said in a statement RSV is not a reportable disease in the province.
“That means the province does not monitor and report on RSV cases in the same way that it does for other diseases such as COVID-19, influenza and pneumococcal,” said spokesperson Sean Hatchard.
It confirmed it does share data pulled from the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre laboratory to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
A report from PHAC shows an increased positivity rate of RSV in Atlantic Canada, but does not break it down by province. Hatchard said the department is aware of Health Canada’s approval of the RSV vaccine for seniors.
“The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) has not yet published its recommendations on the RSV vaccine Arexvy,” he said in the statement.
“Once these recommendations are available, we will review them and conduct an assessment of other important information, such as our local epidemiology, cost benefit and other competing vaccine priorities, and recommendations will be made to government on how best to proceed.”
Health Minister Bruce Fitch reiterated similar sentiments during Question Period on Tuesday, not committing to a timeline on vaccine coverage.
NACI is not expected to make a recommendation on it until 2024.
National organization pushes for coverage
Meanwhile, the Canadian Association of Retired Persons has been pushing for governments to fund the vaccine since it became available about a year ago.
“In the last year, a total game changer when it came to how people can deal with RSV,” said Bill VanGorder, with CARP.
He said no governments in Canada covers it province-wide, although Ontario has provided coverage for seniors over 60 who live in long-term care or retirement homes.
“We are urging them to do so because a small investment in the RSV vaccine potentially will save all kinds of money in terms of preventing hospital stays later on in life,” he said.
“If we can control respiratory illnesses in older Atlantic Canadians, we’ll be able to keep all of them healthier longer and live the useful lives that we want them to and they certainly want to,” he said.