Perth mother Delaney Gibbons recounts her son’s terrifying encounter with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). We quickly learned that an innocuous cold could turn into a life-threatening situation, as happened when Conor was nine months old – his basic cold turned into a four-day hospital visit. Her experience is a canary in the coal mine to other parents of infants, about how important it is to immunise babies against RSV.
Conor’s traumatic journey started after his mum spotted that he was struggling to breathe and immediately took him to the hospital. What ensued became a heart-wrenching ordeal of Delaney witnessing her son succumb to his illness. The virus had caused such weakness in Conor’s body that he needed a feeding tube to get his nutrients. Having fought through those difficult days, he has since healed and is very happy and healthy as a three-year-old.
The Severity of RSV in Young Children
RSV causes more hospitalizations in children during their first year of life than any other viral or bacterial disease. Even more encouraging – all of this news originates from the state capital itself. This sobering statistic brings home the point about why vaccination is so important, especially for our youngest children. Delaney Gibbons opened up about her worries while Conor was in the hospital, recalling, “It was heartbreaking… It was horrible to see.” Her primary goals are to inspire other health care providers, but parents, to vaccinate their children against RSV, especially the most vulnerable among them.
Sabine Winton, a community member and passionate local health advocate, raised the alarm about falling immunization rates in the community. She remains committed to encouraging action to address this important priority. “Increasing our vaccination rates is a top priority for me and I am doing everything I can to help do that,” she said. Winton strongly encouraged taking measures to protect children from RSV. He made repeated calls for people to get vaccinated, both for flu and COVID-19.
Advocating for Immunisations
Delaney Gibbons would like to share her family’s painful journey with the hope that no other families will go through what her family has endured. “It would be incredible to know we helped stop some other family from going through what our family has gone through,” she said. That’s because we genuinely do want to make a difference. Her advocacy is buoyed by a new vaccine initiative. In its first year, this program managed to vaccinate the majority—tens of thousands—of Western Australia’s babies on time.
Winton said that in order to increase vaccination rates, it is key to make vaccines as convenient as possible for people. To her, increasing access is one way to address parents’ worries and make it seem less scary. This, in turn, will drive them to protect against widespread threats such as RSV.
