By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on April 18, 2026.
newsdesk@medicinehatnews.com
Pediatricians in the province are advocating for expanded coverage for RSV vaccines for Alberta infants.
Doctors say offering more RSV immunizations for infants under six months would protect babies at the highest risk of infection, which would translate to fewer emergency visits, hospitalizations and ICU admissions.
“Every child in the world will get RSV before they turn two,” said Dr. Sam Wong, an Edmonton-based pediatrician and the section president of pediatrics for the Alberta Medical Association.
“The idea of having this immunoprophylaxis medication is to protect newborns in their first year when they’re most susceptible and most likely to end up in hospital or ICU.”
Wong wrote a letter on behalf of the AMA to Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services Adriana LaGrange on Apr. 1 asking the province to adopt a universal publicly funded RSV immunoprophylaxis program for infants under the age of six months.
The medication does not work the same way as a vaccine, instead introducing monoclonal antibodies that provide protection against the virus for a period of several months before disappearing.
“A vaccination actually changes the immune system to fight the infection,” said Wong. “This is a medication that is used to prevent the most serious side effects of RSV, and actually fights the RSV itself.”
In 2024-2025, infants under one year old accounted for 27 per cent of all confirmed RSV cases, with 1,532. This respiratory virus season, 516 infants under one year have been hospitalized in Alberta so far.
Jurisdictions that have adopted a medication program like this one report impressive results.
Quebec, for example, offers a universal RSV shot for infants, and in the first season of universal coverage posted an 89 per cent decrease in infant RSV hospitalizations.
Alberta is one of only two Canadian provinces that does not offer a program of this kind. Other jurisdictions that have already implemented universal access to this medication for infants under six months old include the U.S., Spain and Chile. The global average for reduction in hospitalizations is 80 per cent.
Wong says the primary reason Alberta hasn’t implemented a similar program is cost. But since Health Canada approved a competitor drug for the medication in February, that factor is expected to improve.
“Because now there’s two competing medications, we’re hoping that the cost will go down.”
If the price falls below $300 per shot, it becomes cost neutral to either rollout a program like the one he proposes or continue to hospitalize infants for RSV at the rate the province presently experiences.
PPHS says no decision has been made yet about eligibility for the medication in the 2026-27 season, but the ministry has commissioned an analysis from the Institute of Health Economics to determine cost and feasibility for an expansion.
“We recognize the importance of monoclonal antibodies in protecting infants from rSV infection and are taking an evidence-based approach to ensure publicly funded programs deliver the greatest health benefit,” read a statement to the News.
18
-17