SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection, also known as a children’s respiratory illness called RSV, is on the rise in California.
Orange County declared a State of Emergency on Monday and the infection's early arrival has Sacramento health officials concerned. UC Davis Health said between RSV, COVID-19 and influenza, they are nearing capacity.
It’s something that has parents like Michele Minney concerned.
When Michele Minney adopted her daughter, Olivia, she found out she had RSV when born. Her twin brother died from the illness.
“I’d never heard of it until then. I didn’t really know much about it to be honest with you, and then after I heard about more kids having it, I was like 'Oh, I didn’t realize it was so deadly that kids could die from it,'” Minney said.
Her daughter was treated at UC Davis. Dr. Natasha Nakra, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at UC Davis, said they are seeing a huge increase in RSV cases and hospitalizations. Something they wouldn’t normally expect until after Thanksgiving.
“Capacity in our hospital is already quite limited already due to respiratory viruses. Second of all, in addition to RSV we expect the influenza season to be more severe this year. We expect there will also be another wave of COVID activity,” Dr. Nakra said.
Dr. Nakra said during the pandemic, with precautions taken, children weren’t exposed, lowering their immunity. Now with more travel and less masking, children are more susceptible and viruses are spreading faster.
“We’ve seen that our ICU, Intensive Care Unit, capacity has already been at its limits, and this is true not only at UC Davis but other hospitals in the region. This means young children that need oxygen or other higher levels of support are not able to get it here in Sacramento and that’s concerning,” Dr. Nakra said.
Dr. Nakra said they are having to put children on other floors, but they have not turned anyone away.
Current data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows, over the three week average of RSV, PCR tests the positivity rate is 11%.
Pfizer announced they will submit for Food and Drug Administration approval at the end of the year for a new RSV vaccine. Women would get the vaccine in the second, or third trimester and mothers would pass the antibodies to babies.
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