When my youngest son was only a few months old he became ill with what I thought at the time was just a cold that was affecting his breathing. Absent an official pediatric diagnosis, I treated the cold-like symptoms with the usual over-the-counter medications for babies.
He did not get better. At least not right away.
One evening I noticed he was struggling to breathe. I panicked, called an ambulance and rushed my normally jovial baby to the hospital. Turns out he was suffering from respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, the same contagious virus that in recent months has been pushing hospitals around the country to capacity.
The Star and other news organizations have been reporting on the surge of RSV, but I thought that since some of the readers in our audience are in the minority communities that often are most at risk for such community health problems, this space might be yet another place parents and grandparents should hear about the illness and how dangerous it can be for children and some adults. Knowledge provides the power to protect yourselves and family members.
So, today I’m just looking out for ya.
RSV is a respiratory virus that mostly manifests with mild cold-like symptoms, but can cause pneumonia and bronchiolitis in young children. It can be life-threatening in infants and senior adults.
Because the pandemic had us wearing masks for the last two years, illnesses like RSV — spread through coughing and sneezing — may have been kept at bay. But with masks dropped and other COVID-19 restrictions lifted, there’s far more risk of exposure. And with children back in school and day care, there’s more risk of kids contracting this illness right here at flu season, too.
National health experts have described the alarmingly high RSV case numbers so much earlier in the year than usual as “unprecedented,” saying it’s the most severe season in 25 years. And that goes for our local Children’s Mercy Hospital, which has seen hundreds of children with RSV in the last few weeks.
The good news is that kids do recover. I know that because my little guy is now a healthy 26-year-old, but I still remember how scary RSV was for us.
