STOCKTON, Calif. — After warnings of a "tripledemic," health experts say it's here, consisting of the flu, COVID and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
"He just started coughing for like an hour non-stop to an hour-and-a-half," said Joseph Robinson, of Stockton.
Two weeks ago, Robinson's 3 1/2-year-old son Aiden was diagnosed with RSV. Robinson rushed him to the emergency room hoping doctors could help.
"He would grab his chest and start wheezing. I could only picture it as someone standing on your chest, and he couldn't get his breath," said Robinson.
In San Joaquin County, a spokesperson for the public health health department says emergency rooms at hospitals are very busy as they see many patients with respiratory illnesses like RSV.
Symptoms include a runny nose, decrease in appetite, coughing, sneezing, fever and wheezing. The symptoms appear in stages, not all at once. Most infections go away on their own in a week or two.
While there is no specific treatment, you can manage fever and pain with over the counter medicines such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen and by drinking enough fluids to prevent dehydration.
To protect yourself, wash your hands often, avoid close contact with anyone who has cold or flu-like symptoms and cover your face when coughing or sneezing.
"As a physician, I have to be honest, we've never seen anything like this," said Dr. Payal Kohli, ABC10 medical health expert.
Dr. Kohli says the "tripledemic" of RSV, flu and COVID is hitting all at once.
"I'm extremely worried about what the rest of the winter is going to bring, particularly with all the travel and everything else that's happening where we're seeing a surge in infections occurring so early in the season when normally we would expect this to occur in January - really in the dead of the winter," said Dr. Kohli.
So far in California, three adults and two children under five have died from RSV this season.
Fortunately, after two weeks with the illness, Aiden is healthy again.
"If you notice your child is continually coughing for ten minutes, a half hour, an hour. You might want to get that checked," said Robinson.
Right now, Sacramento County Public Health reports six ICU cases of RSV of children under the age of five.
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