North Texas

Dangerous Respiratory Cases on the Rise in Young Children

Children’s hospitals in North Texas are filling up with babies suffering from respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

“We’re seeing a lot of RSV right now,” said Kelly Ann Hoselton, a nurse practitioner at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. “It's difficulty breathing, it’s a lot of nasal congestion and it's fever.”

The potentially deadly virus targets children under the age of two.

“There’s no specific therapy for RSV, and there’s no vaccine for RSV,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, with Children’s Medical Center. “So it’s just a matter of keeping these kids alive until nature takes its course and they start to heal.”

The number of cases at Children’s has doubled in the past few weeks, causing nearly every bed in the hospital to be filled.

Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth reports the number of RSV cases there has tripled since December, with doctors now seeing as many as 60 cases each week.

“If they are not eating, if they are not having wet diapers, if they look dehydrated or they’re having increased breathing and their suctioning does not help at all, they need to come in,” said Hoselton.

RSV is a seasonal virus, and doctors don’t expect to see a drop in cases for weeks.

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