EDMONTON — Kat Bellavance, a mother of three, knows what it is like to endure sleepless nights caused by an infant's shrieking cries for milk; unfortunately, she has also learned what it is like to wake up and find her baby desperately fighting to breath. Bellavance learned this harrowing reality in 2023 when she woke up and shockingly found her seven-week-old daughter, Max, who had no preexisting respiratory issues, coughing, skin contracting around her ribs, and unable to catch her breath. "I think as a parent, you sort of just go into reaction mode, just even to make that call to say, we have to take her to the emergency right now," said Bellavance to the Western Standard. "You know, hindsight, I didn't even think to call an ambulance. It was like 'We just need to go.'"Tossing Max into their car, Bellavance and her husband frantically made the 30-minute drive from Sylvan Lake to Red Deer, pleading that their baby would not stop breathing. "It's a pretty terrifying drive," Bellavance said. .Over 4920 individuals in Alberta have tested positive for the Respiratory syncytial virus since August 2025, 1809 of whom led to hospitalization, 152 led to the individual being admitted to an ICU, and 56 Albertans died.Doctors say nearly every child will catch RSV by the time they turn two years old.Max was one of 1,244 Albertans younger than 1 year old who tested positive for the virus in 2023.She caught it from her two siblings, both of whom were in school and old enough to better battle the symptoms.RSV symptoms are typically mild, often presenting as an average cold, but for individuals with preexisting respiratory conditions or those at the upper or lower ends of the age spectrum, the effects can be more severe.."We got put into triage right away, and then she ended up being in the hospital for four days just on oxygen," Bellevance said. "We got sort of lucky that she didn't need further support, but it was four days of a little seven-week-old baby on oxygen, and you're sort of just stuck in a room attached to the wall with her."The experience was harrowing."They told us several times to expect it to get better or to get worse before it got better," Bellavance said. "So we were sort of stealing ourselves for things to go sideways, and she was just a little trooper. She was tough, and she fought it off quite quickly, and she didn't need further support."It took three days for doctors to be confident enough to say that Max's fight had reached its peak, but the recovery battle for her to breath on her own was not any easier.Bellavance remembers watching doctors test Max by removing her oxygen mask to see how her heart rate reacted."They just take her off, and then you can just watch on the monitor, and her levels would just drop, drop, drop, and they would go, 'Okay, not today. We'll try again, later,'" Bellavance said. "So, in that time, we didn't really know how much longer it was going to be. It felt like it wasn't getting better.".The parents had their own struggles as they tried to be with their daughter. Bellavance and her husband own their own business, which allowed them to take some days off work, and family members were able to care for their other children, but some resources were not available to them.She was nursing Max, which meant she had to be there to feed her, but Bellavance was also sick and did not want to leave their room for fear of infecting one of the many high-risk individuals roaming the hospital.It took four days until the Bellavances could go home, and even then, Max still battled numerous RSV symptoms for three weeks, and a cough for eight.Three years later, Max is relatively healthy, but Bellavance cannot help but think about how the entire experience could have been minimized or even avoided with an RSV vaccination..Studies have shown that the Niresevmab RSV vaccine, when given to infants, is 75% effective at reducing RSV-related medically treated infections, 83% effective at reducing hospitalizations, and 81% effective at reducing ICU admissions. Similarly, the RSVpreF vaccine administered during pregnancy is 54% to 64% effective at reducing medical treatment, 57% to 82% effective at reducing RSV-related hospitalizations, and 64% to 87% effective at reducing ICU admissions. A National Advisory Committee on Immunization report published in April called on provinces to either offer universal RSV immunization for infants or vaccinate pregnant mothers, and a follow-up for high-risk infants. Ontario, Quebec, and some other provinces already offer universal RSV vaccination for infants, but Alberta does not.Alberta Health Services funds RSV vaccinations for high-risk infants, such as those born prematurely or with a respiratory condition; however, it costs over $250 to vaccinate babies who do not qualify.Likewise, Alberta funds RSV vaccinations for all Albertans aged 70 or older, but does not fund them for pregnant women.."I mean, it just doesn't make sense to me," Bellavance said. "It's such a strain on the health care system that could, at this point, be fairly easily avoided. And you know, the stress for parents, especially if you're working, people can't just take four days off of work to stay in the hospital with a young child.""So just that in general would make a big difference. I think even just access in general, it shouldn't be something that, 'Well, you can access it if you can pay for it.' People who would probably be the most affected are people who wouldn't be able to pay to have a vaccine like that."Pediatricians in the Alberta Medical Association echoed a similar sentiment in a letter to Alberta's Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services, Adriana LaGrange, on April 1, calling on Alberta to fund RSV vaccinations for all newborns."Each winter, hundreds of Alberta infants are hospitalized with a respiratory infection we now have the tools to prevent," reads the letter from Dr. Sam Wong, sent on behalf of the AMA Pediatrics Section..The Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services said it understands the importance of protecting infants through RSV vaccination and uses an “evidence-based" approach to ensure public funding delivers "the greatest health benefits.""At this time, no decision has been made regarding universal coverage," reads a statement from the ministry. "To inform future approaches, we have asked the Institute of Health Economics to conduct an Alberta-specific cost-effectiveness and feasibility analysis to guide RSV prevention for future seasons.”Bellavance believes the price tag for buying an RSV vaccine for children is far less than the potential risk of not doing so. RSV vaccinations were still undergoing testing in 2023, but Bellavance said she will have any future children immunized against the virus, even if she has to pay out of pocket."I don't think that any parent wants to put their kid in a scenario for long-term medical distress, if you can avoid it," Bellavance said. "So for sure, because of what we went through, I think a vaccine would have been a much easier solution. It definitely would have saved a pretty scary experience."
