[Indications and prescription modalities of palivizumab in neonates]

Author(s): Guillois B

Affiliation(s): Service de neonatalogie, CHU de Caen, hopital Clemenceau, 14033 Caen cedex. guillois-b@chu-caen.fr

Publication date & source: 2007-09, Arch Pediatr., 14 Suppl 1:S16-23.

Publication type: Comparative Study; English Abstract; Review

Palivizumab is a recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody against the F glycoprotein of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). It has been licensed since 1999 in France for the prevention of serious lower respiratory-tract infection caused by RSV requiring hospitalization in children born at 35 weeks gestation or less and who are less than 6 months old at the onset of RSV season, or in children less than 2 years old who have received treatment for bronchopulmonary dysplasia within the last 6 months. Since 2003, it has been also licensed for children less than 2 years with hemodynamically significant heart disease. Its high cost leads french and foreign pediatric Societies to restrain its indications for children with the highest risk of severe illness.