WAUKEE, Iowa — Respiratory Illness season is right around the corner and experts are urging parents to take action to protect their newborns.

Dr. Joshua Kindt, a Pediatrician at The Iowa Clinic North Waukee Pediatrics Department, said that RSV and Influenza pose a significant threat to children.

“Every winter RSV and influenza is a serious concern for children, but especially for babies and toddlers. So influenza each year in the United States about 100,000 children are hospitalized with influenza and about 100 pass away from influenza in the United States every year for RSV, about 200,000 children are hospitalized every year and about 200 pass away from RSV every year,” Dr. Kindt said.

Vaccines aren’t the only way to protect from RSV. A new treatment is now available, called Beyfortus, which is an injection of antibodies.

Dr. Kindt said that Beyfortus is different from the RSV vaccine in that it provides antibodies that protect from RSV instead of immunization.

“You’re not immunized, you are protected. It’s very similar to a pregnant woman passes antibodies to her baby and those antibodies last in the baby for about six months. And so a lot of times babies under six months are less likely to catch things from their siblings, not for six months. And then after that six months, they’ll catch things,” Dr. Kindt said.

Dr. Kindt said that the new treatment has the potential to revolutionize how the medical field fights RSV.

“Those antibodies are very protective. We expect this to be a revolution in pediatric medicine, both Blank Children’s Hospital and the pediatric floor at Mercy Hospital are full of babies and toddlers with RSV every winter. And it’s a huge burden. And we expect this to be a massive revolution like the chickenpox vaccine or the measles vaccine,” Dr. Kindt said.