One of the nation’s top hospitals announced on Thursday (November 10) that it was at full capacity and reducing elective surgeries due to an unusually high number of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) patients.
Another nearby hospital has similar problems.
Massachusetts General for Children, located in Boston, said that in the first 10 days of November, more than 1,000 cases of RSV were reported. Throughout October, approximately 2,000 RSV cases were reported.
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RSV is causing a “disaster of capacity,” Brian Cummings, medical director of the Massachusetts General for Children’s Department of Pediatrics, said at a press conference Thursday afternoon, as reported by Boston 25 News.
Cummings said that RSV cases this year are about “20% to 60% higher” than a typical fall – and that winter, not fall, is usually the season hardest hit by RSV.
Typical symptoms of RSV include stuffy nose, congestion, cough and fever.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that almost all children contracted RSV when he was two years old, and most cases are mild. Typical symptoms of RSV include stuffy nose, congestion, cough and fever.
Some children who get RSV need to be hospitalized.
“Even if only 10% need hospitalization, it creates a lot of stress for healthcare facilities,” Cummings said at Thursday’s press conference. “We’ve had over 250 hospitalizations for RSV alone in addition to other circulating viruses.”
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Cummings said RSV causes “very severe respiratory disease in young children”, which creates breathing difficulties or exacerbates asthma.
He added that there are no pediatric intensive care beds currently available at the hospital and that there are “seven patients who are outside the ICU who would normally be transferred into the ICU “.
A mother checks her sick daughter’s throat. RSV “can cause inflammation of the lungs. It can cause lung infection like pneumonia.”
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New York-based Fox News medical contributor Dr. Janette Neshewiat recently told Fox News Digital about RSV: “It’s a virus that can cause inflammation in the lungs. It can cause infection in the lungs like a pneumonia.”
“The younger you are when you are infected, the more likely you are to have a more acute presentation.”
She added: “And what we’re seeing now is that it’s causing about 60,000 childhood hospitalizations every year. For three children [who] are hospitalized with COVIDwe see up to 30 hospitalized with RSV.”
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The number of children with respiratory illnesses “skyrocketed throughout October,” Cummings said, which “created enormous stress on pediatric health care.”
There are no pediatric intensive care beds currently available at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston.
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As a result, some elective surgeries are being delayed to free up doctors and hospital space for emergency care.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many children who would have contracted RSV did not as people stayed home and did other mitigation efforts, Cummings said.
“What has happened over the past two years with COVID is that a lot of the pandemic mitigation measures have disrupted normal viral transmission,” he said.
“Much of RSV has not spread in the previous two years.”
“If at any point it looks like your baby isn’t breathing well at all, just take them to the emergency room.”
“Now that it’s been circulating a bit more, there’s usually a lot more people out there who are likely to be infected. The younger you are when you’re infected, the more likely you are to have a more acute presentation,” Cummings said. Thursday.
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He explained that “the youngest patients are at the greatest risk of hospitalization”, particularly those under the age of a year – and that such hospital stays are usually short.
Most cases of RSV can be treated at home with fluids, rest, and fever control, but some cases need to be treated in the hospital.
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Boston Children’s Hospital is also experiencing similar capacity issues as the Massachusetts General for Children.
“Boston Children’s has been at or overcapacity for nearly six weeks on average due to RSV, seasonal illnesses and the ongoing behavioral health crisis,” the hospital said in a statement quoted by Boston 25 News.
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“We expect the numbers to continue to increase as we move into the winter months, so we are using alternative care spaces where needed. These are spaces we have used many times before,” the lender also said. ‘hospital.
Any serious breathing problem requires immediate evaluation, doctors say.
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“If your child is starting to develop respiratory distress, breathing faster than usual, that belly going in and out with every breath, the skin between his ribs being sucked in with every breath – that’s when that he needs to be seen by a provider as soon as possible,” Dr. Laura Romano of Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, told Fox News recently.
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“Take them to the ER. Take them to the ER,” she added.
“If at any point it looks like your baby isn’t breathing well at all, just take them to the emergency room.”