NEW ORLEANS — RSV, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, is flu-like illness that has spiked this summer in young children in Louisiana.
The virus is typically a winter virus and doctors at Children's Hospital New Orleans said they have never seen a summer spike like this one. Normally this time of year, there would not be many children admitted with RSV.
Dr. Michael Forbes, the chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Akron Children's hospital, said that the RSV surge in Louisiana is an epidemic within the COVID pandemic.
In mid-April, there was only a 2% positivity rate and by early July the positivity rate was up to 40%.
Last year at this time it wasn't even 1%.
There were very few RSV cases last year, likely due to masks and social distancing.
"You have a lot of kids who were born in the last year in a half who, unlike in other times, would have been exposed and had the cases, they're just now being exposed because they're coming out of social isolation," Dr. Mark Kline, Physician-in-Chief of New Orleans Children's Hospital said.
Infants and toddlers are most vulnerable, particularly preterm infants; they are 2-5 times more likely to be hospitalized than term babies.
Health officials want parents to reach out to find out if their child is uniquely vulnerable because there is no treatment once your child gets it.
RSV is like a cold that won't go away it causes coughing, sneezing, nasal flaring, pulling in ribs while breathing, fever, and sometimes a bluish discoloration in the nail bed or around the mouth.
Dr. Forbes says it's hard to say what the RSV winter season will be like, but he has hopes that immunity will kick in. If that happens it should be a normal winter season.
Visit Rsvprotection.com for more information.
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