really start to pick up, and we’re going to start to see a lot more disease,” Gesteland says.
COVID-19 and RSV
One reason for the concern, he says, is that the unseasonal RSV spike is happening in tandem with a rise in pediatric COVID-19 cases, due to the more contagious Delta variant.
At some other hospitals, experts have warned that the combined trends are stretching resources thin. Last week, Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston said it will now require its whole workforce to be vaccinated against COVID-19. It said that “bold action” was needed in the face of the dual surges in COVID and RSV.
The hospital has also reportedly seen over two dozen children infected with both COVID-19 and RSV.
However, it’s generally different groups of kids who are at risk from the two viruses, Dr. Larry Kociolek, of Lurie Children’s Hospital and Northwestern University, in Chicago says.
RSV is ubiquitous, he explains, and for older kids whose immune systems have been exposed to it, it’s simply a cause of colds. So the virus is mainly a threat to babies — especially preemies and infants younger than 6 months.
According to the CDC, over 2 million American children visit the doctor for an RSV infection during a normal year. About 58,000 end up in the hospital.
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There is no vaccine against RSV. But, Kociolek says, there is a way to help prevent severe infections in certain high-risk youngsters: an injection medication called palivizumab.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends the drug be given to some preemies in