COVID is having a little bit trouble,
totally dominating. COVID
not totally dominating.
That sounds pretty nice after a
year and a half of this pandemic,
but doctors say we might want to
hold off on celebrating and that is
because doctors say there are other
viruses that are just spreading and
while COVID isn't the only Germantown,
it is still a serious problem and
it has a whole lot of company.
So it's not dominating quite like it
used to, so there's more other viruses.
Uhm, circulating about. Now
one of those viruses is RSV.
It's an illness that mainly
affects babies and small children.
Sometimes it's like the common cold,
but in other cases the child can
have a hard time breathing and
can get really sick in August.
For example, one Greensboro woman had
two kids sick with RSV at the same time,
both of them younger than the age of three.
She says she had to get up throughout
the night so many times to make
sure that her children were OK.
We just basically at night made sure that
we were listening to their breathing.
Uhm, with the five month old we
had to wake up and give her saline
and also use the nose sucker on
her nose several times the night.
Well doctors say they started seeing cases
in early summer and their numbers have been
going up ever since from now until six,
we're going to be talking to a doctor from
Cone Health to learn more about this virus
and how you can protect your children.
So we're going to dig into it.
We're joined by Doctor Michael Cinnamon.
He is the medical director of the Pediatric
Intensive Care unit at Cone Health.
So first and foremost,
just a quick explanation.
What is RSV?
It is a respiratory virus.
It stands for respiratory syncytial virus.
It has been with us for a long time
as long as I've been practicing.
We've known about RSV.
It's and it does cause what we call
bronchiolitis, which is an infection
of viral infection of the Airways,
and it typically affects small children.
Usually the smaller they are,
the more severe and it causes wheezing,
much like an asthma like illness
except for little babies.
But it it it can affect older people,
and in fact in elderly it can
become a very severe virus,
too much like the flu.
But it's very,
very common respiratory virus,
right? So what are some of the symptoms
of RSV and how serious does that
infection sometimes become?
Uhm, well, it's extraordinarily common.
Most babies will actually get
RSV in the first year of life.
Literally close to 100%.
It's very hard to prevent,
and it's very common and very contagious.
However, for most children
it is a rather benign cold.
Symptoms are almost
exactly what you'd expect.
Coughing congestion,
sometimes, babies get fussy,
they don't eat as well,
they're irritable,
it can be associated with a.
Fever not so much GI illness but but baby
will spit up when they're coughing a lot.
And I'm on some cases.
As I said, difficulty breathing will develop.
What you would think of it as an asthma, OK?
Wheezing and difficulty breathing.
Is there a vaccine
that is available?
No, they've been working on a
vaccine for RSV for many many years,
and for whatever reason,
unlike COVID and influenza and a lot of
other things we we've had vaccines for,
it has been very challenging.
So no, there is not an
effective vaccine for RSV.
And anyway we can keep it
from happening to our kids.
You basically said 100% of
the kids usually get it.
It's really tough. You would have to.
It was very interesting this year
because so many people were isolated.
TSB is normally a winter time virus.
We see it in the months of October
through January and this time we're
seeing it in the summer 'cause
so many people were masked. I
see OK, so
the note to those parents at home
is make sure that you're talking to
your doctor and you know when you
need to go in and see your doctor,
doctor. Thank you.
Cinnamon doctor Simon.
Thank you so much for joining us.
We want to make sure you have
this information. It's in.
R2 wants to know section of our website.