CNN
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When Amber Sizemore and her family went out of state to celebrate her birthday last week, she had hoped her toddler daughter, Raegan, would try swimming. But the 15-month-old, normally energetic and adventurous, wasn’t herself on Saturday.
“She hated it, and she normally loves water,” Sizemore said.
By Sunday, when the family was heading back to Ohio, the little girl was “coughing like crazy.”
“She coughed so hard, she threw up,” Sizemore said. Raegan also stopped eating and developed a fever.
When Tylenol didn’t help, Sizemore took her to urgent care and told them that RSV or respiratory syncytial virus, a common cold-like virus, was going around at Raegan’s day care, where Sizemore also works.
The test came back positive, and Raegan’s vital signs prompted the staffers at the urgent care to tell Sizemore to take her daughter to the hospital.
As soon as they saw her vitals, the staff at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland knew they had to admit Raegan, her mom said. She needed oxygen.
“They’ve been great here and taken good care of her, but the scariest part is, had I not already known she was exposed to RSV, I may have just let her cough it out,” Sizemore said. “I’m glad I didn’t wait.”
Most kids catch RSV at some point before they turn 2, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, and it’s usually mild. Symptoms may look like a common cold and include runny nose, decreased appetite, coughing, sneezing, fever and wheezing. They typically last a week or two, and clear up with rest and fluids.
But in some children, especially young infants, RSV can be dangerous, leading to dehydration, breathing trouble and more serious illnesses such as bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Now, there’s an “unprecedented” rise in RSV cases among children in the US, some doctors tell CNN.
The CDC does not track hospitalizations or deaths for RSV like it does for flu, but it said Thursday there has been a rise in RSV cases in many parts of the country. Several children’s hospitals told CNN that they’ve been “overwhelmed” with patients at a time of the year when it’s unusual to have a surge of RSV patients.
Overall, pediatric hospital beds are more full…
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