Penn State Health Children's Hospital physicians, from left, Dr. Jessica Ericson, Dr. Katherine Shedlock and Dr. Ruth Gardner discuss respiratory syncytial virus on Nov. 8, 2023. Photo credit: PennLiveThe respiratory virus known as RSV is the number one cause of babies and very young children being hospitalized. The peak season for RSV occurs extends from October through March.
RSV often causes relatively mild, cold-like symptoms, but sometimes it turns severe. Each year in the U.S. the virus causes 58,000 to 80,000 children under age five to need hospital care. Extremely young infants are at highest risk of becoming severely ill.It often looks like a cold, with symptoms including sneezing and runny nose and a slight fever. Such minor symptoms often don’t require a doctor.
There’s a recently approved vaccine that can protect babies against RSV. Unfortunately, there’s a manufacturing-related shortage, which is hopefully only short-term. As a result, doctors are being advised to limit vaccine to babies who are less than six-months old and some babies up to 18 months old who have medical conditions that put them at high risk. Penn State Health has vaccine.
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