RSV Is Here Again

It’s November. Your child has had some runny nose, cough and fever. Now your child is starting to have trouble breathing. There is a very good chance that your child has become infected with RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus).

RSV usually appears in November and continues to be a major cause of illness until the following March. Infection is most common in younger children, between the ages of two months and four years. Infection can cause more severe illness in premature infants and in infants and children with heart disease, chronic respiratory disease or impaired immune systems. RSV also affects the elderly. RSV is a major cause of hospitalization in the winter months.

RSV causes an infection called bronchiolitis. Children with bronchiolitis can have cough, runny nose, and fever. They also may breath fast, wheeze, turn blue and use neck, chest and abdominal muscles to help themselves breath. Children who are having breathing problems, especially infants, should be seen quickly by a pediatrician.

RSV can also cause pneumonia, croup, bronchitis, apnea and ear infections.

RSV can be diagnosed quickly in your pediatrician’s office by a rapid screening test performed on material obtained from your child’s nose.

Treatment for RSV is limited. Antibiotics will not help. Inhaled albuterol or another medicine to open the airways may be tried. In severe cases children, especially infants, may need to be hospitalized to receive help in breathing and to watch them for apnea. Hospitalized children who are severely ill may be treated with ribavirin, which can slow reproduction of the virus.

You can help prevent RSV by keeping your child away from other sick children and by not smoking at home.

It is important that you realize your child has the ability to rid his or her body of the RSV infection and almost always your child will get better on his or her own.

This guest article has been written by Harvey J. Simon, M.D., a pediatrician and Chief Medical Director of Good Night Pediatrics. Good Night Pediatrics is open every night of the year to care for your child from 5 P.M. to 5 A.M. with three convenient locations in the Valley and a forth coming to the Northwest Valley very soon.

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