WellSpan Pediatric Medicine Physicians across the Midstate are seeing RSV, COVID and asthma exacerbations.
The providers at UPMC Children’s Community Pediatrics in York and Spring Grove are continuing to see flu, RSV and viral illness this week. They are also seeing COVID-19 and strep throat.
The CVS MinuteClinic in York reports a slight increase in flu cases. They continue to see cases of COVID and viral upper respiratory infections. They’re also seeing secondary bacterial infections, such as ear and sinus infections.
This week, pediatricians at Penn State Health have seen an increase in patients with RSV, as well as an increase in patients with COVID. They are also seeing patients with the flu, strep throat, bronchitis, a lot of colds, and some stomach bug.
Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Physicians Roseville Pediatrics reports a lot of RSV in all age groups. Younger toddlers and infants are sometimes getting bronchiolitis from it, but not always. Older kids and adults typically have a bad cold with a pretty wet cough.
RSV and other viruses have been causing a ton of secondary ear infections.
They have seen a small rise in strep and COVID cases. Flu cases are still pretty low but they did see an increase in viral stomach bugs.
There’s also been an influenza-like illness that is negative on all viral testing but acts like the flu, with fevers for three to five days, body aches, headache and sore throat.
They are also still seeing hand, foot and mouth cases despite the season. Hand, foot and mouth is typically seen in warmer months.
Dr. Joan Thode offered the following advice about RSV:
“RSV is a virus that causes upper respiratory symptoms, as well as an increased inflammatory response in the lungs, particularly the lining of the air tubes. In infants and younger toddlers, this can cause mucous plugging in the tiniest airways, known as bronchiolitis. While not every case of bronchiolitis is problematic, in some cases, the inflammation is widespread enough to prevent inhaled oxygen from getting to the bloodstream adequately.
To tell if your child is in oxygen deficit, watch the effort and rate of their breathing. The brain and body have methods to increase the oxygen processing in the lungs with an increased breathing rate and breath volume. These methods, though, require a lot more energy.
To get more air volume into the lungs, the body will use the ribcage muscles to forcefully expand the lungs with every breath. The child’s belly will protrude with each breath, and there will be an exaggerated expansion of the ribcage, known as retractions. Sustained fast breathing or retractions are concerning signs that warrant medical evaluation to ensure we can give the child more oxygen if they need it, and that they don’t tire out with the extra energy expenditure.
Testing positive for RSV is by no means a guarantee of respiratory distress; it often causes a severe cold and congestion, but most babies and kids weather the storm as they would any other virus. The key is not the name of the virus but rather how the body fights it and whether the inflammation causes an increased rate and work of breathing.”
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