Cases of RSV, a respiratory illness that primarily affects small children, are up in southwest Michigan as in much of the country. Corewell Health South pediatrician Dr. Anne Dudley tells us RSV is similar to illnesses like a cold or the flu.
“Some people have pretty mild symptoms,” Dudley said. “Maybe just a runny nose, a little bit of a cough, fever, sneezing, but others could have much worse symptoms. We tend to see a little bit more difficulty, especially difficulty in breathing, and that would be with babies, especially younger than six months, and in the elderly.”
With RSV cases up around the country, Dudley tells us health experts are concerned about a tripledemic — COVID, the flu, and RSV — crowding hospitals. Dudley says with people gathering as they did prior to COVID, the chances of RSV spreading are increased.
“In the last couple of years, we definitely have seen that it has been more severe in the number of cases.”
Dudley says RSV is worst for little ones who already have trouble breathing. There’s been an uptick in hospitalizations nationwide, and at Corewell Health Lakeland, they had 84 cases in October, although not all necessarily hospitalized. In September, they had 16 cases and in August, 4 cases. Dudley’s advice to parents is to watch babies closely for signs of illness and to keep them away from people who are sick. She notes there is an RSV vaccine in some cases, but it’s not for everyone.
