Doctors warn there’s a more severe strain of an upper respiratory virus hospitalizing kids this year. The symptoms of RSV, or Respiratory Syncytial Virus, can be hard to distinguish early on. Signs of RSV include a persistent cough, fatigue, difficulty breathing and lack of appetite. It’s estimated 75,000 to 125,000 children will be hospitalized this year in the United States. World-wide, the virus kills 160,000 people. Infants through age two and the elderly are most at risk.
Doctor Michael Lewis is medical director of pediatric inpatient and pediatric intensive care at The University of Kansas Health System. In the video, he says they’ve seen significantly more patients for RSV this year, and case numbers around the country have doubled since last year. He says the cases have been more severe with longer hospital stays, and he’s seen quite a few young ones on a ventilator for a few days. He adds many are still on some oxygen for a few days after the ventilator before going home. Most cases of RSV are mild and do not require medical attention, but it can be worse for infants and older adults. Lewis adds say hand washing and staying home when sick will help stop the spread of RSV.
Also in the video, Marian Garcia, who noticed the symptoms in her toddler.
She says he didn’t want to eat and only wanted to be carried and was even falling asleep randomly. She says she knew it was serious after fevers, a bad cough and really bad congestion that only got worse, not better, after a few days. When her 3-month-old daughter began showing symptoms, she brought both of her children to the emergency department. Turns out her son had passed the virus to Garcia’s infant daughter. She was hospitalized for a week. Garcia said her daughter’s case progressed more quickly than her son’s. “Just seeing the doctors so quickly run in her room, it was scary.”
Also included is video of Garcia’s two children in the pediatric intensive care unit.
