Virus Update: RSV
We have a viral uptick going on right now, and it’s not COVID. My health news feed has been sending warnings about an unusually high number of cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a very common respiratory virus that’s usually not problematic. It generally causes mild, cold-like symptoms, and most people recover in a week or two. However, that isn’t true for everyone; RSV can be very serious for infants under six months and preemies as well as older adults.
Why is it so serious? RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis, an inflammation of the small airways in the lung called the bronchia, and pneumonia infection of the lungs in children younger than one in the U.S. If you’re a numbers person, each year in the U.S., an estimated 58,000 children younger than five are hospitalized with RSV infection resulting in 100 to 500 deaths per year.
The elderly are also at high risk, especially those with compromised immune systems. You want more numbers? It’s estimated that more than 177,000 older adults are hospitalized and 14,000 of them die in the U.S. due to RSV infection every year.
One more complication: there’s no vaccine for RSV. What can we do? I’ll cover that on Saturday.
What are you prepared to do today?
