Rate of dissemination of a common respiratory virus is unusually high

• 15-month-old Raegan Sizemore didn’t like swimming when her family took her to the pool.
• She was coughing like crazy on Sunday, when the family was returning to Ohio.
• Raegan’s typically active and daring, she wasn’t her usual self.

Amber Sizemore had hoped that her young daughter Raegan would try swimming when her family and she traveled out of the country to celebrate her birthday last week. The 15-month-old, who is typically active and daring, wasn’t her usual self on Saturday.

She usually likes water, but she loathed it, Sizemore said.

The young daughter was “coughing like crazy” on Sunday, when the family was returning to Ohio.

Sizemore stated, “She coughed so violently, she puked.” Additionally, Raegan stopped eating and got a temperature.

When Tylenol failed to relieve her symptoms, Sizemore rushed her to the emergency room and informed the staff that RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, a virus that resembles the common cold, was spreading at Raegan’s daycare, where Sizemore also works.

The test was positive, and because of Raegan’s vital signs, the urgent care workers advised Sizemore to send her daughter to the hospital.

The professionals at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland realized they had to admit Raegan the moment they examined her vitals, according to the girl’s mother. She required air.

The most terrifying aspect, according to Sizemore, is that if I hadn’t already known she had been exposed to RSV, I might have simply let her cough it out. “I’m glad I acted quickly.”

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, RSV usually strikes children before they reach two and is typically not severe. Common cold-like symptoms such a runny nose, loss of appetite, coughing, sneezing, fever, and wheezing can also occur. They usually go away after a week or two of relaxation and hydration.

However, RSV can be harmful in some kids, especially newborn infants, where it can cause dehydration, breathing issues, and more severe conditions like bronchiolitis or pneumonia.

According to some experts, there has recently been a “unprecedented” increase in RSV cases among children in the US.

The CDC did not report any hospitalizations or fatalities related to RSV on Thursday, but it did report an increase in RSV infections across the nation. At a time of year when an increase in RSV cases is unusual, several children’s hospitals informed CNN that they had been “overwhelmed” with patients.

Federal records show that pediatric hospital beds are currently more filled than they were two years ago.

About three-quarters of all pediatric hospital beds in the US are now filled, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, which does not disclose the reason for hospitalization. In contrast, over the previous two years, the average daily occupancy rate for pediatric hospital beds was around two-thirds.

In early October, due to the RSV outbreak, UH Rainbow Babies had so many patients that it had to go on diversion for a few days, making it unable to accept emergency admissions from outside sources. It is currently accepting patients again, but the RSV cases are still overwhelming.

Connecticut Children’s Hospital has been working with the governor and public health commissioner to assess whether it should enlist the National Guard to increase its capacity to treat these young kids because there has been such a huge surge in cases there.

“I’ve been working on this for a while. Despite working at Connecticut Children’s for 25 years, Dr. Juan Salazar, the hospital’s executive vice president and medical director, told CNN that he had never experienced anything like the current rise in RSV cases.

The emergency room at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth and its urgent cares are seeing a high number of RSV patients, which typically peak in Texas in December or January. According to hospital spokeswoman Kim Brown, RSV patients make up about half of the ICU. At Cook Children’s between October 2 and 8, there were 210 RSV cases; a week later, there were 288.

Lindy, a 4-month-old baby belonging to Jeff and Zoey Green, was hospitalized to Cook on Sunday.

Lindy’s fever was so high in the hospital that ice packs were reportedly required to cool her off at one point.
Holding a worn-out Lindy at the hospital, Zoey Green remarked, “I don’t know how she slept with those ice packs on top of her. She claimed that they are attempting to keep her hydrated so that she won’t require another IV.

“We definitely want her to get better,”

An early increase is also being observed by Dr. Mallory Davis, an infection preventionist at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

As we try to sort of figure out how to handle all of the sick children in the neighborhood, we are extremely full, and our census numbers are pretty high, she added.

According to Dr. Kevin Messacar, an infectious disease specialist and assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital Colorado has seen an early rise in RSV hospitalizations and is beginning to see the first few flu cases of the season.

As children returned to school in the late summer, enteroviruses and rhinoviruses first appeared, and now RSV and parainfluenza are the main causes of the rise in patient volumes, the doctor stated. “We are concerned about the consistently higher quantities of unwell children needing hospitalization as influenza season swiftly approaches with what appears to be an early start.”

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