BALTIMORE (WMAR) — Hospitals across the country are dealing with an unprecedented early spike in respiratory illness in children.
Children’s National Hospital in D.C. is nearing capacity, in part because of these infections, including RSV. Right now, some hospitals in Maryland are reporting higher cases and some are at capacity for pediatric beds.
RSV usually peaks between November and March, but doctors said cases started in the spring and have continued.
According to a Medstar infectious disease specialist, we are seeing this rise because many kids were not exposed to as many viruses during the pandemic, because of the all the things we did to limit the spread of COVID.
“When you think about children under age two, they are usually in daycare or had previously been in daycare and had been exposed to lots of viruses. You can ask any parent who has children they will tell you in in the winter season that their child has lots of runny noses so those are all good things but if we think back to the COVID pandemic, we had less children exposed to virus and so for a lot of these children this is the first time they are seeing these viruses. Most of the time the first infection is worse than subsequent infections,” said Dr. Ruth Kanthula, a pediatric infectious disease specialist with MedStar Health.
There is no vaccine or specific treatment, so it can cause serious upper and lower respiratory symptoms in infants and young children.
Doctors say kids under age two are the most at risk because they likely haven’t encountered any version of the viruses before.
“There is the potential for causing a lower respiratory tract disease and potentially leading to pneumonia so that’s why if you notice that symptoms are lasting longer than you would expect for a viral infection, noticing that your children are having difficulty breathing, that could be an indication that the virus has made it has way down to the lungs,” said Dr. Kanthula.
If your child has a prolonged cough or fever or shortness of breath, Dr. Kanthula recommends going to the ER or urgent care.
In terms of prevention, she said hand washing and limiting the time your infant is out in crowded places.
