Due to an increase in paediatric respiratory illnesses, the medical community encourages parents to be ready and aware of potential problems.
Usually, a virus causes a common cold, but there has been an increase in occurrences of a more deadly virus throughout the nation, and experts say they want parents to know what to watch for.
As the virus that affects youngsters is spreading quickly across the nation, doctors issued a warning on Tuesday.
"We're not doing this to frighten the neighbourhood. Hector Rodriguez-Cortes, M.D., the chair of paediatrics at Broward Health Medical Center, warns that this is happening and that you should be ready. The Respiratory Syncytial is the name of it.
RSV often produces cold-like symptoms, such as runny nose, congestion, and fever, but at the moment, doctors are seeing a lot of young kids who have more severe symptoms.
In fact, the Pediatric ICU at Broward Health started to fill up with them in the previous 48 hours.
According to Laurie Garcia, nurse manager of the paediatric intensive care unit at Broward Health, "We've had an influx of children coming in and we've had to open up overflow rooms."
According to doctors, RSV is usually not a huge concern in children and merely needs home care.
According to Rodriguez-Cortes, "The viruses that we are seeing here are viruses that you would ordinarily see every day but we've seen this increase." What he observes is that the patients have advanced to the point where they need excellent care, and some of them even need critical care management.
The symptoms may worsen and necessitate hospitalisation in individuals with cardiac or respiratory disorders, as well as those whose immune systems are severely weakened.
"When people arrive with these infections, the majority of what we do is supportive care. Simply keep them comfortable and support their respiratory symptoms as they arise if they require oxygen, Tylenol, or Motrin for the fever, advises Garcia.
