Health experts: Another contagious virus besides Covid is making children sick
EL PASO, Texas -- As children return to schools, there has been a dramatic increase across the country of pediatric cases of COVID-19. But health experts say not every case is the coronavirus. There is another virus making children sick.
We asked ABC-7 Medical Contributor Dr. Neha Sharma, medical director of The Hospitals of Providence Northeast and Horizon City about it. She appeared on ABC-7 at Four.
"The virus is called Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV for short," said Dr. Sharma. "It's a common respiratory virus that's extremely contagious and usually causes cold like symptoms. It can be serious in infants and young children and can cause respiratory distress, pneumonia or bronchiolitis. Symptoms are very similar to COVID, so parents and physicians need to look out for both. The only way to differentiate between the two, is to get your child tested. If parents see their child having trouble breathing, they need to get them medical attention immediately."
She added that adults can also contract RSV. "My children and I got RSV last month and thankfully we were able to recover at home."
Dr. Sharma says this year's outbreak of RSV came earlier than expected. "RSV infections typically occur in the late fall, winter and early spring," she explained. "Last year, due to all the mitigating efforts including masks, improved hand hygiene and social distancing, we did not see much RSV. The relaxation of these guidelines however with the vaccine rollout is possibly fueling the RSV rise. In Texas, the spike began in late June."
Dr. Sharma says the ways to protect your children from RSV are the same ones as for COVID. "Washing hands thoroughly and covering your face while coughing and sneezing. With a spike in RSV and the delta variant surge in children, I will also highly recommend indoor masking for children and adults regardless of vaccination status so we can mitigate exposure and risk."
