RSV protection for all infants in Ontario, Quebec, Nunavut coming soon [Video]

Dr. Noah Ivers remembers thinking his infant son just had a cold.

But then, he was “clearly struggling to breathe” and had to be rushed to the hospital.

His son had respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV — a common illness with often mild symptoms in children and adults. But for infants and seniors, RSV is a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections that can land them in hospital.

Despite his medical knowledge, Ivers said seeing his baby with an oxygen mask left him feeling “unempowered.”

“The most you could do in that moment was hug them and hope,” said Ivers, who is both a primary care physician and a scientist at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto.

That happened about nine years ago, he said, noting there’s no antiviral treatment for RSV — so shielding infants from serious illness in the first place is key.

But until this year, babies across Canada were only …