Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is seeing a record number of patients with respiratory syncytial virus, and doctors there are urging parents to take steps to protect the people most vulnerable: kids.
Children’s is reporting a 10 to 20 percent increase over last year in RSV, the commonly used name for the virus which infects lungs and breathing passages. RSV can be especially serious for infants.
RSV can start off looking like just a cold, but the symptoms can worsen and cause pneumonia and bronchiolitis.
“It can cause significant breathing problems and bring children into the hospital,” Children’s pediatrician-in-chief Jim Fortenberry told WSB Radio.
RSV is responsible for about 300 infant deaths in the U.S. each year and 200,000 worldwide. About 100,000 people in the U.S., mostly infants, are sent to the hospital with RSV.
“We’re seeing very high volumes of kids in all our emergency department facilities,” Fortenberry said. “The numbers of RSV patients we’re seeing now appear to be the highest numbers that we’ve seen since we began testing.”
Children’s has these suggestions to guard against the virus:
— Clean your hands often and disinfect hard surfaces regularly.
— Don’t allow people to kiss your children.
— Keep children away from crowds.
— Don’t allow anyone to smoke around your children.
— If your child is in the hospital, ask ill family members and friends to not visit.
“RSV is very contagious, but there are a lot of good things we can do with just washing our hands,” Fortenberry said. “The best thing you can do to be a good neighbor is to stay home and keep your child home.”
For more information, go to choa.org/rsv.
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