THESE PAST FEW MONTHS there’s been a lot of attention paid to the children’s respiratory virus RSV—as well it should. RSV joins the common cold, flu, and COVID-19 on the health landscape through which the public must navigate safely. Yet, there are ways parents can identify RSV and help protect their children from suffering.
RSV is no stranger to the medical community—particularly pediatricians — not only here but globally.
“RSV is the most common respiratory pathogen in children and infants worldwide,” Dr. Jennifer DeLucia said. “It’s everywhere.”
Dr. DeLucia is a board-certified pediatrician who is an assistant professor in the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Science, with a practice at Rocket Pediatrics in Waterville and one at the UT Medical
Center. She said, “It’s the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children. It accounts for 125,000 hospitalizations of infants in the U.S. every year, and 250 deaths. It’s really big. We see it constantly. When you do a pediatric residency it’s one of the first things you learn about.”
Dr. DeLucia added, “Almost everyone in the world is infected by it by two years of age.” How does it affect children, notably those from infancy to age three? For a lot of kids, she said, RSV is like a regular cold. But for some kids, especially those with risk factors, it progresses—or digresses— to upper respiratory symptoms of distress, such as laboring to breathe and wheezing. Infants, especially in the first six months, breathe through their noses only. “When they’re feeding, they have to keep breathing through their nose. RSV produces a huge amount of mucus, and they can’t breathe well. They can’t breathe and feed. The younger infants are more severely affected,” and may need to be hospitalized, she said.
Older toddlers tire themselves trying to breathe through the stuffiness. “They use energy to breathe. They tend to get ear infections as well.” RSV stands for respiratory syncytial virus, with syncytial meaning a net across the airway, she explained, making breathing difficult.
For infants, she suggested nasal toileting—putting drops of saline solution in the baby’s nose and sucking it and the mucus out. “You have to keep their noses clear so they can feed.”
Why RSV is being talked about more so than in other years, Dr. DeLucia explained, is that “this season, it started earlier. The normal run is between November and May, peaking in January and February when it’s cold and people spend more time inside. This year it started in summer.”
What started the virus’s run so early is a coming out from the pandemic, she suggested. Parents kept their children indoors more and have steered clear from crowds more so than in years past. Now, “everybody’s been released and getting sick and passing illnesses because there’s not a lot of natural immunity.”
So far as treatment, Dr. DeLucia said an ailing child should be near a cool mist vaporizer or a humidifier, and given acetaminophen for fever.
There’s hope through prevention. “Like in the early days of the pandemic, it’s important to be really careful about hand hygiene. Wash hands. And like with any virus, avoid crowds and keep kids out of daycare or limit their time at daycare. Kids are little Petrie dishes where diseases break out.”
She added that parents should pay attention to their children’s breathing, and if they’re struggling, seek treatment.
Again, there’s hope. She said in her Waterville practice in November she saw a three-year-old who was lethargic and in respiratory distress. “I sent her to the hospital. She stayed for two days and was fine.”
Dennis Bova is a freelance writer and editor. ✲
