HARTFORD, Conn. — The fall triggers the unofficial start of the respiratory virus season. You’ve heard about COVID and the flu, but there’s another potentially deadly virus that has overrun some children’s hospitals in Connecticut.
It's called Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV and it’s nothing new. Most kids get it before the age of two and most kids do just fine, experiencing mild cold symptoms. Kids who are immunocompromised can be vulnerable and right now Connecticut is seeing a surge.
Liz Linehan’s son Finn was less than a year old when he caught a bad case of RSV.
“He had a runny nose and a cough and when he started wheezing I got concerned,” she said.
The first stop was the pediatrician, who hooked Finn up to a device that measured his blood/oxygen level.
“The doctor just said to me very calmly. We will be calling an ambulance because your son’s oxygen levels have dipped too low,” Linehan said.
It was a similar story for Nikki Littles, whose daughter Gabby was hospitalized at CT Children's for a week.
“She wasn’t breathing like she normally was. You could see that her chest was retracting.” Littles said, “She had gotten a lot worse very quickly.”
Look out for fever, a wheezing cough, a runny nose, and loss of appetite. CDC data shows an average of 1,122 positive tests for RSV over the last three weeks with a more than 9.6% positivity rate.
Dr. Leslie Sude told FOX61 that the surge is most likely attributable to the change in social behaviors coming out of COVID, including a lack of masking, social distancing, and herd immunity.
“We don’t have a big community of people who are protected with antibodies to the virus so now everybody is getting it all at once,” said Sude, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and the Yale School of Medicine.
Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital reports a current census of 29 RSV patients with 21 pediatric intensive care beds. The Connecticut Children’s Hospital in Hartford website warns of a busier than usual emergency department.
“DPH has deployed a team to review the situation,” said Chris Boyle of the Connecticut Dept of Health.
The National Guard is also confirming that they have been consulted about the possibility of setting up a field hospital.
“I have to emphasize the meeting was very pre-decisional,” Major David Lytlik said.
Dr. Sude told me she’s been hearing the term triple-pandemic. It’s exactly why they are urging people to get their flu shot and COVID booster. Currently, there is no approved vaccine for RSV, but there are some in development.
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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