What the surge in RSV cases means for the Bay Area, symptoms to look for

In the Bay Area, beds at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital’s San Francisco and Oakland campuses are “pretty full” amid a surge in RSV cases, Dr. Ted Ruel, director of pediatric infectious diseases, said Wednesday. .

“It’s like a normal winter bad weather day, but very unusual for October,” he said.

However, he said hospitals have not been severely affected to keep patients away.

Meanwhile, hospitals in other parts of the US, including the East Coast, Midwest, Southeast and Southern California,
see resources stretched very thin.

The increase is occurring as many children’s hospitals are facing resource shortages due to the influx of patients with various problems such as COVID-19, flu, and mental health issues.
Children’s Hospital Association.

What is RSV?

Doctors stress that RSV is nothing new — it has been around for decades, can be infected multiple times, and most children first contract the virus before the age of three. become infected.

The disease is usually accompanied by mild cold-like symptoms, and most children recover quickly.
According to the CDC.

“It’s the single most common respiratory pathogen children encounter,” said Dr. David Cornfield, director of respiratory therapy at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. “It’s everywhere.”

However, for some people, the disease can be very harmful. According to the CDC, RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children under the age of 1 in the United States, typically about 2% to 5% of children admitted to hospital each year. I’m in.

Why is the number of infected people soaring this year?

Peak RSV numbers typically begin between November and February. However, this year, the rise is faster and the trading volume is higher.

This is because precautionary measures during the pandemic, such as school closures and masking, prevented many children who would normally come into contact with the virus in their daily lives, Cornfield said.

RSV cases declined dramatically in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.but those people
surged last summer
As COVID restrictions eased. Although the rate of rise has slowed this year, positive tests this month have recently surpassed figures from this time last year.
According to CDC data.

More people have returned to normal behavior this year, and all children who had never developed any immunity to RSV are now exposed to RSV, with cases increasing, Cohn said. Mr Field said.

Luckily, those children are less sick than in the past, Ruel said.

“I’m not concerned that this is some kind of highly virulent or more aggressive strain of RSV,” he said. “It’s not necessarily that children are getting sicker, it’s just that the number of cases is increasing.”

Will Bay Area Proliferation Get Worse?

according to
CDC surveillance data
Based on testing, the incidence of RSV in the western United States is lower than in all other regions except Florida, which was independently measured rather than other regions in the South.

Ruel said he wasn’t sure if that meant that California was slightly behind and cases would continue to rise, or that the West would see less of an impact. I am ready for both possibilities.

“We are ready for the numbers to go up,” he said.

Kornfield added that children’s hospital resources are always under pressure, but not because they don’t have space for patients.

“I think children’s hospitals around the bay are full and have limited capacity all the time,” he said. Not because there is a shortage of beds, but because they are staffed with skilled staff. “It’s a problem in most hospitals across the country.”

How to minimize risk

Anyone can get RSV, but infants, the elderly, and other medically vulnerable people are at greatest risk. For children under the age of 5, 58,000 are hospitalized and up to 300 die each year.
According to the CDC.

Doctors said there are steps people can take to minimize the chances that their child will end up in the hospital.

RSV can enter the mouth, nose, or eyes through direct contact, such as coughing or sneezing from an infected person, touching surfaces with the virus on them before washing their hands, or kissing an infected person’s face. It is transmitted through infected droplets. children with RSV,
According to the CDC.

Many of the measures that prevent the spread of COVID-19 also prevent RSV. Wash your hands frequently, stay home when sick, and keep sick people in your home as far away from other family members as possible.

Symptoms and treatment

Symptoms of RSV include runny nose, loss of appetite, coughing, sneezing, fever and wheezing.
According to the CDC.

For very young infants, the only symptoms may be irritability, decreased activity, decreased appetite, or pauses in breathing known as apnea, the CDC says.

If a child is showing symptoms of RSV, doctors said parents can take some steps to get through it. This includes taking acetaminophen or ibuprofen to control fever, and for babies, sucking mucus through the nose with a bulb syringe to keep breathing unobstructed.

A runny nose alone doesn’t mean you should go to the hospital, says Ruel, but parents should be on the lookout for symptoms that indicate something more serious is going on. Or the neck, or prevent them from eating and drinking well.

If they occur, experts say parents should seek medical care immediately.

Children hospitalized with RSV may require oxygen, intubation, or a ventilator to help them breathe. With such supportive care, most will improve and be discharged from the hospital in a few days, the CDC said.

Doctors stressed the importance of keeping children safe from other illnesses as well.There is no vaccine against RSV, but parents can ensure their children are protected from COVID by getting them vaccinated against the flu and the COVID vaccine. You can avoid being hospitalized with -19 or the flu, or co-infection with a combination of the three.

“Keeping people up-to-date with these vaccines on what we can prevent will help reduce illness in those children and reduce the burden on hospitals,” said Ruel.

Danielle Echeverria is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @DanielleEchev