{"id":54748,"date":"2022-11-22T10:14:38","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T18:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=54748"},"modified":"2022-11-22T10:14:38","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T18:14:38","slug":"alarming-surge-of-pediatric-rsv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=54748","title":{"rendered":"Alarming Surge of Pediatric RSV"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Peter White<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The disease, which affects very young children, currently has no cure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A common virus with flu-like symptoms is infecting very young children in large numbers, leading to a spike in the number of emergency room visits and hospitalizations in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Respiratory syncytial virus<\/a>, or RSV, was first identified in 1956; there is no vaccine although clinical trials are underway with pregnant women, said Dr. Priya Soni, a Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no treatment or therapeutic antiviral for RSV virus,\u201d Soni added, speaking at a national Ethnic Media News briefing last week. \u00a0Babies are getting ill because they have smaller airways and they\u2019re not able to clear secretions like older adults.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor us, our virus can be just a mild cold but in babies they can get bronchiolitis and other complications,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, the\u00a0Centers for Disease Control (CDC)<\/a>\u00a0is reporting large numbers of flu cases across the country, especially in Georgia and Florida. RSV could spike later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that everything doesn\u2019t coincide at the same time as RSV surging, but we are seeing an uptick in flu cases as well,\u201d Soni said.<\/p>\n

The journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine published a\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0in November estimating that 1 in 50 children under age 5 around the world die from RSV. It is the second leading cause of death after malaria and kills between 100,000 and 200,000 babies under the age of one every year.<\/p>\n

Dr. Mina Hakim usually sees more RSV patients in January or February. He is a pediatrics specialist at South Central Family Health Center in Los Angeles. \u201cIt\u2019s very unusual to see it this early,\u201d he said. He worries what will happen in the next few months<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is coming to a point where it\u2019s overwhelming our ERs and our ICUs, and our hospitals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Whites, Hispanics, and Native Americans have a\u00a0higher risk of infection<\/a>, according to the CDC. But Hakim said the highest risk population is children less than six months old.<\/p>\n

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CDC RSV-NET Interactive Dashboard, Rates by Race\/Ethnicity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hakim noted the general overall hospitalizations rate year to year for RSV is about 13 per 100,000, or 0.3%. \u201cFor children less than six months of age, the hospitalization rate can be up to 2 percent. So there\u2019s more than a 100-fold difference there in the hospitalization rate,\u201d Hakim said.<\/p>\n

RSV spreads like the flu\u2014from tiny droplets that are inhaled, unwashed hands, or from hard surfaces where the virus can live up to six hours. But why is RSV surging now?<\/p>\n

Dr. Manisha Newaskar, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at Stanford Medicine Children\u2019s Health, said most babies catch RSV before they are two years old and get over it but precautions taken during the COVID pandemic kept babies from being exposed to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were taking utmost precautions, right? We were wearing masks, we were washing hands, we were not sending our kids to school if they were having even a sniffle. So that\u2019s what was causing fewer cases and now that things have opened up, the world has gone back to its normal pace,\u201d Dr. \u00a0Newaskar said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most common symptom is a stuffy nose and babies breath thru their nose and that makes them struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Babies may have a fever and Tylenol can help reduce it. But what lands them in the ER is difficulty breathing from swollen airways. RSV babies fuss, don\u2019t eat, and get dehydrated.<\/p>\n

Newaskar said that if an infant is less than six months old with cough, congestion, or fever, parents need to keep a close eye on the baby\u2019s symptoms and see a pediatrician if they get worse. There is a diagnostic test that can determine if the baby has the flu, RSV, or COVID. The flu comes on quickly, RSV in stages, and all three viruses have similar symptoms.<\/p>\n

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A \u2018tripledemic\u2019, known as the\u00a0#flu<\/a>,\u00a0#COVID19<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0#RSV<\/a>, are hitting kids across the country. Dr. David Cornfield, chief of pediatric pulmonary and critical care medicine at\u00a0@StanfordChild<\/a>, has advice on how to stay safe this holiday season.\u00a0https:\/\/t.co\/TIvcUkZ415<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Stanford Children’s (@StanfordChild)\u00a0November 20, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

RSV is a virus and antibiotics won\u2019t help. What does is suctioning mucus from the nose with a bulb and using a humidifier to keep airways moist. Newaskar noted that doctors give the Synagis vaccine to preemies and other high-risk infants to prevent severe RSV disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudies have found that kids who are exposed to smoking at early stages are more likely to be in the hospital due to RSV, as are babies who have not been breastfed, Hakim noted. \u201cThree months of\u00a0breastfeeding can decrease your risk for severe bronchitis from RSV<\/a>.\u201d Hakim, 90% of whose patients are below the poverty line, added that working mothers stop breastfeeding because the realities of life make them return to work sooner than other populations.<\/p>\n

Doctors advise the same prevention measures people use to avoid COVID.<\/p>\n

Newaskar said that good basic hygiene like covering your cough and frequent hand washing can keep babies from getting sick.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your child is sick, don\u2019t go to school, right?\u2026even if they are having mild symptoms, it\u2019s best to keep them home to prevent the virus from going around in the school,\u201d she urged.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re planning to travel over the holidays, make sure you\u2019re up to date on our COVID boosters and get a flu shot. \u201cSo at least you have protected yourself against two major viruses,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ByPeter White Nov 21, 2022 The...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54749,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54748\/revisions\/54749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}