How Synagis Can Help Protect Your Baby
- Written by Christine Simmons
You must be wondering what this fancy name is and how it can protect your baby from harm. First of all, Synagis is an antibody that is produced to prevent your child from having a respiratory syncytial virus or RSV. Synagis (palivizumab) prevents RSV cells from multiplying in your child’s body.
Now, what is the respiratory syncytial virus or RSV?
A respiratory syncytial virus can be quite common among infants and is highly contagious. What it does is it infects the respiratory tract of a baby, which could potentially give the infant a severe lung disease before the age of two. Mostly, babies and young children tend to contract just a simple cold from the infection. However, there are some cases that the virus could lead to more complicated illnesses such as inflammation of the small pathways of the lungs which is a condition is called bronchiolitis, or even pneumonia, which is a hazardous illness.
Risk
The people that are most at risk with this virus are prematurely-born babies, infants with the condition that weakens their immune system, children under the age of 2 that have a lung or heart disease, and children who are only under 8-10 weeks old.
Symptoms
The symptoms of RSV are very subtle and can easily be ignorable if you don’t know what you are dealing with. Several of these symptoms are colds, runny nose, and coughing, which are very easy to spot and could last for up to two weeks. If you notice other symptoms like trouble breathing, refusal to breastfeed or bottle-feeding, unusual tantrums, yellow to green mucus produced by coughing, and dehydration symptoms like dry skin, little to no urine and tearless crying.
If multiple symptoms show up at the same time, it’s a good decision if you contact the doctor or go to the hospital immediately.
Fortunately, there are specific things that you can do to prevent your baby from getting in contact with RSV. Several tips for this are: always disinfecting everything that the baby will touch and tends to reach; only let people, including yourself, touch your baby after washing their hands; avoiding too much contact with your baby if you are sick; avoid crowded areas and areas which are full of smoke; and limit the baby from going into daycare, especially during late fall and early spring, which are times that RSV can be ubiquitous.
Unfortunately, there is no known vaccine for RSV yet. A medication called Synagis exists, fortunately. If your baby already contracted the virus, this medication can prevent it from spreading in your baby’s body, stopping it from being more of a severe disease.
Synagis
Synagis is a medication that is given to infants to prevent severe lung disease that is caused by RSV in infants who are born prematurely and with those who have a lung or heart disease. This medication works best for infants who are under 24 months old and is more efficient if given at the beginning of the RSV season, which could start six months or younger. It is important to remember that Synagis does not cure RSV; it only stops the virus from getting into a more serious condition like lung disease and such. Synagis can be acquirable with a Synagis discount coupon.
Take note, before administering the medication, you should check first and tell your doctor if the baby is allergic to palivizumab. Furthermore, if your child has a bleeding or blood-clotting disorder or the infant has a low level of platelets, tell your doctor immediately.
Synagis is administered to a muscle by injecting the medicine. The medication is given once a month, preferably at the start of RSV season, which is usually November throughout April but may be different if you are living in a different time zone. For the medication to take the full effect, it should be given to the baby before the RSV season begins to help prevent RSV infection.
When the RSV season starts, the injection should be administered once every 28-30 days as the medication has an effect that could last up to a month or so. Always keep the schedule in mind as to give the Synagis injection on time. Also, even if the child already contracted the virus, the baby should still receive his/her monthly shots. Also, the medication can give unusual results to given lab tests, so before any of that, you should tell your doctor that you’re using the medicine.
Takeaway
Rsv can be ubiquitous among children, and its effects can be ignorable at times. Even then, a parent should never be too lax when their child’s safety is a concern. To protect your baby from harm, you should always talk to your healthcare provider about the baby’s safety and health.