Like many hospitals around the country, Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva has been seeing a dramatic rise in the number of children with respiratory viruses seeking care in the emergency department.
But this year, the culprit isn’t COVID-19. It’s respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a common childhood illness that usually causes only mild cold-like symptoms such as a runny nose, fever and a cough.
And when some of those children need to be admitted to the hospital, doctors at Delnor have been forced to send them as far away as Peoria because hospitals nearby are short on available pediatric beds.
“There’s definitely a shortage of pediatric beds,” said Dr. Steven Coker, medical director of the Delnor emergency department. “There are no inpatient pediatric intensive care unit beds at all. Things are crazy right now. We’ve had kids we’ve held in the ER for 12 or more hours until we can find a place for them to go. We’ve had to send patients to hospitals in Joliet and Peoria, while other hospitals have had to send patients out of state.”
Coker said that over the past few months, the emergency department’s pediatric patient volume has increased 15%, with the majority of visits caused by respiratory viruses such as RSV. He said the patients are coming in earlier in the year, and he’s concerned about what will happen in coming weeks as flu season approaches.
“We saw very few flu cases last year. I haven’t seen a lot of flu yet, but I’m expecting more,” he said. “If things play out like we think they could, it could be a bad flu year, plus we have RSV and COVID. If we have a big surge of sick people, I don’t know what will happen.”
While COVID-19 hospitalizations are down for both children and adults, Coker said the number of children who need inpatient hospitalization for RSV is much higher than in recent years. He said while hospitalized, children can receive supplemental oxygen, bronchodilators or steroids. Children usually are in the hospital for only a few days, but the virus could be severe or even fatal in infants or those with other medical conditions, he said.
Dr. Diane Nielsen, a pediatrician at Delnor Hospital, said there is no vaccine for RSV.
“There is a prevention immunoglobin (Synagis) that is only approved for very premature babies or babies with severe heart or lung diseases who are at risk for more severe disease,” she said.
Almost all U.S. children catch an RSV infection by age 2.
People infected usually are contagious for three to eight days. Babies and people with weakened immune systems can spread RSV for up to four weeks.
Among U.S. children younger than age 5, RSV typically leads to 58,000 hospitalizations and up to 500 deaths in a year.
“We’re seeing all ages [in the emergency department], mostly 2 to 5 year olds, but we’ve seen kids as old as 10 or 12 [with RSV],” Coker said.
Nielsen said precautions taken during the pandemic created what she called “an immunity gap.”
“For a couple years, there was little opportunity for children born during the pandemic or the people around them to catch RSV – or other viruses for that matter,” she said. “Their immunity waned or never formed at all. So when those little ones and their family members started to interact with others, they were more likely to get sick. Because of the ‘immunity gap,’ many people are at higher risk for getting ill and at times more ill than prior to the pandemic.”
Coker said parents should look for signs that their child is having trouble breathing and are using muscles in their ribs or neck to get air. He said there aren’t many prevention measures, except to wash hands frequently and keep older children in the household who are sick away from babies and young children.
“In the past, RSV has always been a thing that kids get it and generally do fine,” he said. “But this year, the situation is bad and could get worse. Children have more symptoms with RSV, and currently so many children have this illness we’re getting to a critical bed shortage for pediatric patients throughout the state.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: The Daily Chronicle