Vaccinating women during pregnancy can help protect their newborns against a common respiratory virus which is responsible for about 101, 400 annual deaths in children under the age of five, the immunization experts at the World Health Organization (WHO)said.

During the biannual meeting on vaccination strategies to prevent infectious diseases last week, the UN health agency mainly recommended two passive immunization methods to prevent severe respiratory synctial virus (RSV) infection in newborns. The first one is by administering an RSV vaccine during the third trimester of pregnancy and second oneby administering an antibody to babies immediately after birth.

RSV, which affects the lungs and respiratory tract, sometimes can cause severe illness in infants, leading to hospitalization.

Receiving a single dose of the vaccine in the third trimester of pregnancy -between 24 and 36 weeks of gestation- was found highly effective in preventing RSV-associated lower respiratory illness in babies in the first six months after birth.

Interestingly, receiving a monoclonal antibody at birth, too was found equally effective and safe in preventing RSV for next six months.

"Given the global burden of RSV disease, SAGE recommended that all countries introducepassive immunization for the prevention of severe RSV disease in young infants," the immunization experts at WHO, said.

Though there was a surge in pre-term births in the vaccine groupbelonged to two upper-middle-income countries, the benefitsoutweighed the risk, WHO said.

"Modelling studies indicate that the benefits of vaccination will outweigh the potential riskposed by excess pre-term births as observed in the clinical trial," the experts said in a statement, adding that it is considering to conduct a trial in the future to ensure safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.

However, according to the experts, the high cost and shortage of the antibody, will affect its global accessibility and equity.

Though three RSV vaccines(GSK's Arexvy, Moderna's mResvia, and Pfizer's Abrysvo) are currently available to protect people aged 60 and above against RSV infection, Pfizer's Abrysvo is the only RSV vaccine available for pregnant women, Reuters reported.

Similarly, Beyfortus, an antibody ofSanofi and AstraZeneca, is the only shot approved for infants and toddlers in US and UK, the news agency added.