A new analysis of how the immune system responds to both older and newer investigational vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus—RSV—will help inform the ultimate translation of an immunization from the laboratory to actual clinical usage.

The research couldn’t arrive at a more crucial time. The unexpected, and dramatic, worldwide escalation of RSV cases in recent months helped demonstrate why a vaccine to prevent the infectious illness is so critically needed. Each year, RSV is responsible for 1 in 50 pediatric deaths worldwide, according to researchers at Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital in the Netherlands, where medical researchers recently completed a study on RSV.

The majority of those deaths occur among infants too young to fight the viral disease. But the infectious agent also is a killer of frail, older adults, data from the World Health Organization show, making the development of an effective vaccine a medical priority to prevent unnecessary deaths at opposite ends of the human age spectrum.