There is no cure for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). No antiviral medication reliably eliminates the virus once you’re infected, and treatment focuses on managing symptoms while your body fights it off. The good news: most people recover on their own within one to two weeks, and new preventive tools have made severe cases less common in the most vulnerable groups.
Why There’s No Cure Yet
RSV is a virus, which means antibiotics don’t work against it. And unlike some viral infections where effective antiviral drugs exist, RSV has proven difficult to target with medication. The FDA approved an inhaled antiviral called ribavirin back in 1985 for hospitalized infants with severe RSV, but concerns about safety and limited real-world benefits have made it rarely used. Today, ribavirin is reserved almost exclusively for situations where RSV could be fatal, such as in bone marrow transplant patients whose immune systems are severely compromised.
Several pharmaceutical companies are developing new antiviral drugs specifically for RSV, but none has reached the market for routine use. For now, treatment remains supportive, meaning the goal is to keep you comfortable and stable while the infection runs its course.
What Treatment Actually Looks Like
For most children and adults, RSV feels like a bad cold. Symptoms typically last three to eight days, though a lingering cough can stick around longer. Severe cases may take more time. During that window, treatment at home centers on staying hydrated, resting, and managing congestion and fever with over-the-counter remedies.
For infants, who breathe primarily through their noses, congestion can interfere with feeding. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends using saline drops and gentle nasal suctioning before breastfeeding or bottle-feeding to help babies breathe and eat more easily. Parents should watch for signs of dehydration: fewer than one wet diaper every eight hours is a red flag.
When RSV becomes severe enough for hospitalization, the care is still supportive but more intensive. That can include supplemental oxygen, IV fluids for rehydration, and in the most serious cases, mechanical ventilation. Most hospitalized patients improve within a few days.
Who Faces the Highest Risk
RSV is common enough that nearly every child catches it by age two. For most, it’s unremarkable. But certain groups face a much higher chance of dangerous complications:
- Premature infants and babies under six months, whose airways are tiny and whose immune systems are still developing
- Children under two with chronic lung disease or congenital heart conditions
- Adults over 60, particularly those with heart or lung disease, diabetes, or weakened immune systems
- Immunocompromised people of any age, including organ transplant recipients and those on chemotherapy
For these groups, RSV can progress from an upper respiratory infection into bronchiolitis or pneumonia, which is why prevention has become the main strategy.
Prevention Tools That Now Exist
Since curing RSV isn’t yet possible, the medical focus has shifted heavily toward keeping people from getting seriously ill in the first place. Two major categories of protection are now available.
Monoclonal Antibody for Infants
Nirsevimab (sold as Beyfortus) is a single injection that gives infants ready-made antibodies against RSV. It’s not a vaccine in the traditional sense because it doesn’t train the immune system to produce its own defense. Instead, it provides immediate, temporary protection. It’s approved for all newborns and infants entering their first RSV season, and for children up to 24 months who remain vulnerable through a second season. Babies weighing under 5 kg receive a 50 mg dose, while those 5 kg and above get 100 mg. For children needing protection through a second RSV season, the dose is 200 mg.
Timing matters. For babies born during RSV season (typically fall through spring in the U.S.), the injection can be given shortly after birth. For those born outside the season, it’s given just before the season starts.
Vaccines for Older Adults
Two RSV vaccines are now approved for adults 60 and older. Pooled clinical trial data for both shows strong protection against RSV-related lower respiratory tract disease: about 73% efficacy in adults aged 60 to 74 who are at increased risk and roughly 69% efficacy in adults 75 and older. Protection against cases severe enough to need medical attention was even higher, reaching about 77% in the 75-and-older group and 73% in at-risk adults aged 60 to 74.
Data on whether the vaccines prevent hospitalization and the need for oxygen support is less certain due to small numbers of severe cases in the trials, but the trend pointed toward meaningful protection there as well.
How Long You’re Contagious
You can spread RSV starting a day or two before symptoms appear, which makes it easy to pass along unknowingly. You remain contagious throughout the symptomatic period, generally three to eight days. Babies and immunocompromised individuals can shed the virus for up to four weeks after symptoms resolve, which is one reason RSV spreads so readily through daycares and households with young children.
What Recovery Looks Like
For the vast majority of people, RSV resolves completely without lasting effects. A week or two covers the main illness, though a dry cough can linger beyond that. Children who had severe bronchiolitis from RSV in infancy may experience wheezing episodes in the years that follow, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll develop asthma.
There’s no medication that speeds up recovery. Staying well-hydrated, using saline drops for congestion, and getting adequate rest remain the most effective things you can do while waiting it out. For parents of infants, keeping up with frequent small feedings and monitoring breathing effort closely will catch any worsening early enough to act on it.