What to Look For in Children with Respiratory Syncytial Viruses (RSV) Before Going to a Pediatrician
Mora, a volunteer medical spokesperson for the American Lung Association, says it’s important for parents, caregivers and daycare workers to know what to watch for with RSV, which stands for respiratory syncytial virus. That way, they know whether a sick child can be treated at home or needs to go to a hospital.
She and her peers across the country have been treating small children with this cold-like virus well before the season starts.
Hospitals are already straining to capacity because of the very high number of infections early in the year. The number of children who go to the hospital due to sRV spiked for the second year in a row and experts think it’s because they’ve seen a rise in cases during the summer.
The emergency department is getting completely flooded with sick kids, so they want parents to know they can go to their doctor and get tested for the flu, and even Covid-19.
On average, an infection lasts five days to a couple of weeks, and it will often go away on its own, the CDC says. Sometimes, the cough can linger for up to four weeks, pediatricians say.
A common cold has symptoms such as a sore nose, a decreased appetite, coughing, sneezing, and wheezing. Young infants can seem cranky and have trouble breathing.
If you see that a child’s chest is moving up and down when they breathe, if their cough won’t let them sleep or if it’s getting worse, “that might be a sign that they need to seek help from their pediatrician or take them to the emergency department, because then they might need a supplemental oxygen, or they may need a nebulization treatment.”
Parents should be very attentive to any changes in their behavior, like appetite and activity, and then pay particular attention to any signs of respiratory distress.
“RSV can make kids very dehydrated, especially when they’re not eating or drinking, especially when we’re talking infants,” Mora said. If their urine output has decreased and they are not having as many wet diapers, that could be a sign they need to go to the emergency department.
Talk to your pediatrician before giving your child any over-the-counter cold medicines, which can sometimes contain ingredients that aren’t good for kids.
Dr. Leana Wen of CNN says a bobbing head, a flaring nose or grunting is a problem sign for a respiratory illness. Dehydration is the other. “That particularly applies to babies with stuffy noses. They may not be feeding.”
A thin tube may need to be inserted into their lungs to remove mucus. A child can get extra oxygen with a mask or tube that connects to their nose. Some children may need to use an oxygen tent. Those who are struggling a lot may need a ventilator.
RSV Questions and Treatment Options: What is causing the COVID-19 outbreak in Children’s Intensive Care Units? The children’s voices of concern
There is a increased risk of COVID-19 and influenza, as temperatures are dropping. Patients with respiratory syncytial virus have been overwhelming hospitals the last few months. There could be a “tripledemic” come winter.
But just how concerned should parents be? Here you will find answers to some of the most common questions about who is most at risk and what the cause of the outbreak is.
Health experts agree that the early surge is a result of the removal of COVID-19 precautions, which were put in place to prevent the spread of Viruses.
“We’ve had this whole cohort of young children who haven’t had that usual constant exposure to viruses at day care or in preschool or out in the community. And so now they’re getting exposed and it’s hitting them really hard,” Madhavan said.
The number of baby and children in emergency rooms and intensive care units across the country is on the rise because of those conditions.
“My hope is that this is not the new normal,” Madhavan said on Friday. We don’t know what we’ll see as we head deeper into fall and particularly this winter, so it’s concerning for this year.
The problem is that their small lungs and muscles can’t muster up the power to cough up or sneeze out the increased secretions and mucus caused in their airways.
They have trouble breathing because of excess fluid and that leads to problems with eating and drinking.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/02/1133040571/rsv-questions-answers-treatment-options
Vaccining for RSV with a Public Health Official: What vaccines are going to make RSV a serious illness? Dr. Amos Madhavan
Health officials say handwashing, staying hydrated, keeping hands away from the face and disinfecting surfaces help to stave off RSV or keep it from becoming a serious illness.
She suggested not being shy about grilling others about how they’ve been feeling. “A lot of the time when people ask that question, the person on the other end really only thinks to mention anything if they’ve been really sick, so they don’t think to mention if they’ve had a minor cold.” But that could become a serious case of RSV for an infant or a toddler, she added.
Madhavan said the effective way for children and adults to try to stay healthy throughout the remaining fall and winter months, is to get updated COVID booster and influenza vaccines.
Anyone over six months old can get the flu vaccine. Madhavan noted that it takes a couple of weeks for the shot’s full protection to take effect. “If a child is under eight and has never gotten influenza vaccine before, they need two doses one month apart before getting full protection two weeks after that second dose,” she added.
The COVID boosters for older people became available in September. And children over six months can get any of the three available COVID-19 vaccines. “You shouldn’t wait till we’re in the middle of a second wave to get the booster,” says Madhavan.
RSV, which inflames the smallest airways of the lungs, is the only one of the three respiratory illnesses for which there are not yet any approved vaccines — but that could soon change. Last week, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had agreed to review its RSV vaccine, to be administered to adults over the age of 60, as a priority. If approved — which might happen as soon as May — it could be the first sanctioned jab for RSV. The same vaccine has also shown positive results against RSV in a clinical trial in pregnant people, and Pfizer has said it will seek approval for this group by the end of the year.
Barney Graham, aimmunologist and virologist at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, warns that the vaccines are not going to make the disease go away. What the vaccines will do, he adds, is protect some of the most vulnerable groups, including the very young and very old.
Prevalence of Influenza in the US During the H1N1 Pandemic and its Implications for Palivizumab
Still, Madhavan stressed, palivizumab is not routinely given to all children. Part of that is due to the possible, more serious side effects associated with the drug, which include swelling of the throat, difficult or rapid breathing, muscle weakness, and unresponsiveness.
Madhavan said that in most cases, health care professionals can go through a checklist of warning signs and make suggestions for potential at-home treatments.
It’s possible that you should use a humidifier or do some other things to loosen up mucus and help reduce congestion, based on that information. Try honey to cure a cough or give suggestions on how to bring down a temperature if it’s a child older than one.
Influenza activity continues to increase in the US – the number of flu illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths so far this season nearly doubled in the past week. The CDC estimates that there are at least 1.6 million illnesses, 13,000 hospitalizations and 730 deaths this season, with two reported deaths among children. A number of tests for flu were positive last week.
It has been more than a decade – since the H1N1 swine flu pandemic – since flu hospitalization rates have been this high at this point in the season. The latest update of the CDC records data through October 29.
While the southern part of the US is showing signs of a slowing ofRSV cases, there are still signs of rising cases in other parts of the country.
Children are more full than average with patients with conditions like RSV. According to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services, more than three-quarters of the beds used in hospitals are currently occupied, compared with an average of two-thirds full over the past two years.
As of Friday, seventeen states have less than one in five beds available. Five of them are more than 90% full: Rhode Island, Arizona, Maine, Minnesota and Delaware, along with Washington, DC.
Prefusion F: Vaccine for Infants based on Stable, Unstable Antiferromagnetic Peptide Proteins
Prefusion F is “a very unstable protein”, but “that is what is fully active, and induces the most robust immune response”, so it was what was needed to make an effective vaccine, says Pedro Piedra, a virologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, whose research focuses on reducing the burden of illness caused by respiratory viruses in infants.
There are two forms of the drug: a postfusion form that is very stable and a prefusion form that is not. The protein takes on the prefusion form during infection, when the virus and host cell are coming together, and transitions to the second form once infection has taken hold.
Pfizer, which has headquarters in New York City, announced successful phase III results from two trials of its vaccine candidate earlier this year. The firm gave the vaccine to pregnant people in a trial to boost their total numbers, an idea that they hoped would transfer their antibodies to their babies.
Last month, the FDA gave its vaccine priority review and will now approve Pfizer and Glaxosmithkline. As with Pfizer, approval could come as early as May.