Abstract
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) remains a leading cause of infant lower respiratory tract infection, hospitalization, and death in Latin America and the Caribbean, where unequal access to diagnosis, medical care, oxygen, referral, and intensive care worsens outcomes. New passive immunization tools, maternal RSV prefusion F vaccination and long-acting monoclonal antibodies, can protect infants before peak vulnerability. Still, their population impact depends on timing, coverage, equity, financing, surveillance, and program design. Emerging regional experience with hybrid strategies may help close protection gaps among infants missed or insufficiently protected by maternal immunization. Severe early-life RSV disease is consistently associated with recurrent lower respiratory tract infections, wheezing, asthma, impaired lung-function trajectories, and increased health-care use. However, causality and long-term effects of current preventive products remain uncertain. A regional agenda linking maternal-infant cohorts, surveillance, equity analyses, and life-course economic evaluation is needed to define the full public health value of RSV prevention.