RS virus, or respiratory syncyial virus, is a common cause of pneumonia in infants and young children.
“The RS virus season is usually from November to May”, writes the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) on its websites.
But now several proven cases have made American doctors scratch their heads.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Kate Dutkiewicz, medical director at Beacon Children’s Hospital in South Bend, Indiana, told the news agency. AP.
She has just treated two RS-infected children who both needed oxygen.
– I have never seen cases (of RS virus, journ.anm.) In July or the period before, Dutkiewicz elaborates.
Infection boom: Takes firm grip
Has notified health personnel
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report on June 10 write where they said they had seen an increased incidence of the virus in the southern United States.
The virus has since been detected in several other states, writes AP.
“Because of this increased incidence, the CDC calls for broader testing for RS virus among patients with acute respiratory infection who test negative for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,” the infection control agency wrote in the letter, which is intended to alert health workers and caregivers.
Due to the unusual seasonal development, it is not possible to predict the spread potential or a peak of infection, they point out.
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Greater chance of serious illness
The CDC further writes that “since the RS virus has not circulated as normal in the winter months of 2020-2021”, probably due to better infection control associated with the corona pandemic, “infants and young children may be at greater risk of developing serious illness now, if they are infected. ».
They have probably not been exposed to normal amounts of RS virus in the last 15 months.
According to FHI, symptoms of RS infection can be:
Cough, fever, later rapid respiration, prolonged wheezing expiration (exhalation, journ.anm.), Lethargy, fatigue and difficulty coughing up mucus. About 20 percent get ear infections.
Punished before reopening: – Extremely worrying
– Like ille som corona
LaRanda St. John, mother of 6-week-old Beau, tells the AP that her son had a severe cough a few weeks ago. She thus took him to a doctor’s office for a check.
– At first, the office did not have the capacity to receive us because there were plenty of people who reported similar symptoms in their children, she says.
But after a while, St. John had samples taken from the infant, who tested positive for the RS virus, developed a rapid heartbeat and had to be hospitalized.
SPREAD: The RS virus probably spread from 6-week-old Beau to his 16-month-old sister, Lulabelle – or vice versa. Photo: LaRanda St. John via AP / NTB
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Beau’s older sister, 16-month-old Lulabelle, was also checked and the virus detected, but did not develop a milder disease.
– I can not say I was relieved when I heard it was the RS virus, since I know it is as bad as the coronavirus, she says to AP.
According to the news agency, there must have been a similar development in Australia that first got American doctors on duty. Similar cases are also reported in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
There are pediatric wards in hospitals full, and as a result, half of planned, non-acute operations must be postponed, writes The Telegraph.
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