GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A common respiratory illness is spreading among children across the nation.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows an increase in the number of positive Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV) cases among children. Cases detected by PCR tests have more than tripled over the past two months.
Some doctors say children being more isolated to protect themselves from COVID-19 may have fueled this rise in RSV cases.
HSHS St. Vincent Children’s Hospital and Prevea Health locations are seeing the increase.
Health officials say the numbers aren’t alarming, but parents should still know the signs to watch for.
“If your child is having difficulty breathing — if you hear the child having noisy breathing, and sometimes, parents can even see the chest sucking in — it just means that the child is having trouble getting air in,” explained Dr. Pradeep Prakash with St. Vincent.
Prakash says discoloration around the lips, paleness and refusal to drink are also symptoms.
Each year an estimated 58,000 children under the age of five are hospitalized because of RSV, according to the CDC. However, most infected children do not need to be hospitalized.
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