For the second summer in a row, Louisiana is seeing an increase in RSV or respiratory syncytial virus, the respiratory virus that usually causes wintertime colds in children. Dr. Mark Klein, physician in chief at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans believes the wearing of masks during the first year of the pandemic curbed cases of RSV and most respiratory viruses in general.
“So, we have a susceptible pool of young children out there who are just now encountering RSV and getting sick from it,” said Klein.
Klein said the RSV surge has also been responsible for placing some children in intensive care. He said severe cases of RSV are usually limited to infants in their first year of life.
“Particularly children who are born prematurely or who have chronic lung disease already or have congenital heart disease,” said Klein.
For children who are particularly vulnerable to RSV, Klein said they do have a monoclonal antibody treatment that can be used to prevent severe disease or even death.
For adults and older children, Klein said RSV presents as a severe cold. He said however RSV is a concern for infants who are more susceptible to the virus.
“We do have a couple of young kids in our ICU at the moment with RSV. We hope that this is not going to really blossom the way it did last summer, we’re not quite at that point yet, but we are concerned,” said Klein.
Klein said the positivity rate for RSV in Louisiana was around one percent in the winter and now it’s risen to twelve percent.
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