(NEW YORK) — Two quick-thinking Kansas City, Missouri, police officers are being hailed as heroes after they sprang into action and saved a newborn baby’s life.
Officers Richard DuChaine and Charles Owen responded to a call Thursday about a baby who was not breathing, according to Kansas City police.
DuChaine immediately began chest compressions and then back thrusts on the small baby girl. By the time EMS providers arrived, Kamiya was breathing again.
“We always had that fear in the back of our head that, ‘Is what we’re doing enough? Is it going to be enough to bring her back?'” DuChaine told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “Obviously, once we are able to bring her back, that was a huge sigh of relief.”
Kamiya was rushed to the hospital where her mother said she was diagnosed with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, an illness that is surging to record levels among children across the country.
Each year in the United States, an estimated 58,000 to 80,000 children younger than 5 years old are hospitalized due to RSV infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Most children recover in a week or two, but RSV can be serious, especially for infants and the elderly.
The baby’s mother, Tajanea Allen, said Kamiya is back home and that the two men are her heroes.
“He’s a hero, he’s my hero. He’s my daughter’s hero. He’s a hero, like I would do anything for the man,” said Allen. “The man is a hero, he saved my daughter.”
DuChaine and Owen said they were just fulfilling their duty.
“We don’t feel like heroes. We just feel like we did something good,” said Owen.
DuChaine added, “We don’t do this job to be called heroes. We do this job to preserve life and … just overall, just protecting the people of the city.”
(NEW YORK) — Relaxed PSA screening guidelines may be leading to more late-stage cancer diagnoses, and the current recommendations updated to address this concern might preferentially serve white men, a new study suggests.
One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). One of the only available ways to screen for prostate cancer is by measuring levels of a protein called prostate specific antigen (PSA). But for years, doctors have debated the usefulness of this test, arguing that not all prostate cancer needs to be diagnosed, since it’s not always lethal, and doesn’t always need treatment.
“Many cases are extremely slow growing. Patients will die with prostate cancer, but not necessarily from prostate cancer,” said Dr. Moshe Ornstein, a genitourinary oncologist at Cleveland Clinic.
In 2012, a panel of experts known as the United States Preventative Task Force (USPSTF) recommended against PSA screening altogether, citing that universal testing may inflict harm due to overtreatment.
But since then, mounting evidence emerged linking less screening with more metastatic prostate cancer, meaning it has spread to distant organs and is no longer curable.
“Metastatic prostate cancer will require lifelong therapy,” Ornstein said.
According to the ACS, five-year survival drops from over 99% with local disease, to 31% once distant.
In 2018, after backlash, the USPSTF revised the guideline, recommending that patients talk to their doctors to determine if PSA screening is right for them, intending for this model to identify those most at risk.
Black men are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer compared to white men, so experts hoped that under the new guidelines, this demographic would be screened. But a new study out in JAMA found that Black men, despite their risk, may not be benefiting from the recommendations as they are currently written.
Researchers from the University of Kansas Medical Center included nearly three million men in their analysis. They trended rates of metastatic prostate cancer in relation to changing guidelines, and found that when PSA testing was discouraged entirely, metastatic disease rose in all groups. But after the guidelines were revised to recommend a conversation with a doctor, mounting rates plateaued in white men, but continued to climb in Black men.
Previous studies also found that after receiving the same education, White patients more often found PSA testing more beneficial, while Black patients more heavily considered the risk, their reasoning often informed by personal and historical experiences of racism and discrimination in healthcare.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Dr. Lee Kirksey, co-director of the Center for Multicultural Cardiovascular Care at Cleveland Clinic. “Black Americans have some degree of mistrust of the healthcare system. It is historical context that has been passed down through generations.”
Countless historical injustices have been implicated in this phenomenon, examples dating back as early as the 1840s, when enslaved African American women received experimental gynecological procedures without anesthesia.
Even as recently as the 1970s U.S. physicians were conducting trials withholding treatment from African American men with syphilis, watching as hundreds of men went blind, died and passed on the disease to their spouses and children.
“If you’re from a culturally Black family, you’ve heard of those stories,” Kirksey said. “And those stories are reinforced by the inequities we are seeing today.”
There may be ways to work toward better communication with minority patients, Kirksey said. Increasing patient-physician racial and ethnic concordance may help in establishing trust. Implicit bias training may teach physicians to identify the barriers to effective communication. Additionally, outreach programs may serve to meet patients where they are, using the voices of trusted healthcare workers from the community, in a location where patients are most comfortable.
“There are still concerns within the Black community,” Kirksey said. “It’s important that we continue to acknowledge those concerns, and implement solutions to address them.”
Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Six months ago, Dr. Joseph Boselli said he was prescribing the antiviral drug Paxlovid to nearly everyone who turned up at his practice with COVID.
Now, the internal medicine physician at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia said he’s reserving it mostly for people who are 60-plus, with serious health problems, or who aren’t up-to-date on their vaccines.
“I got four calls today, but I only gave Paxlovid to two because they were older,” said Boselli, an internal medicine physician at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia.
After Paxlovid hit the market in December 2021, the bitter, metallic-tasting antiviral pills were so successful at reducing the risk of hospitalization with COVID that many doctors were willing to prescribe the drug to younger adults too despite federal guidelines suggesting it should only go to high-risk patients.
The drug stops the virus from replicating in the body and works best when taken within five days of getting symptoms.
Now, after more than 164 million courses of Paxlovid have been shipped around the world since April, doctors say a clearer picture of the drug is emerging, including its limitations with younger population and the possibility of rebound.
“The tincture of time has showed us that while it is a great drug, and it really does work, it’s not meant for everybody,” said Boselli.
Here are three things to know:
Paxlovid helps older people survive COVID, but younger, healthy people see little benefit
Overall, the drug works as promised, doctors say, by dramatically reducing the chances that an older or high-risk individual might wind up hospitalized or dead.
What’s more is that it might help prevent “long COVID.”
A study released on Monday by the Veterans Administration looking at the medical records of 56,000 people found that taking Paxlovid early decreased the chances of experiencing “long COVID” by some 25%.
Still, the drug isn’t right for everyone, including people taking certain medications such as some cholesterol-lowering drugs and blood thinners.
Also, one study released this summer found little to no benefit for younger adults when looking at some 100,000 patients in Israel. While researchers found the drug reduced hospitalization by roughly 75% when given soon after infection to people 65-plus, it saw no measurable benefit for people ages 40 to 64.
In June, Pfizer announced it would stop enrolling “standard-risk” patients in a trial to see if the broader public might benefit.
In a statement at the time, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said, “With up to 40-50% of people around the world estimated to be high risk, we believe there remains a significant unmet need for treatment options to help combat this disease, and we will continue to prioritize efforts to advance the development of Paxlovid.”
‘Rebound’ cases are real and seriously underestimated
Less understood about Paxlovid and COVID in general is a person’s chance of “rebound” — a phenomenon in which a person recovers from an infection and tests negative, only to redevelop COVID symptoms or test positive within eight days after recovering.
The experience is frustrating because the recommendation is that the person return to isolation for another five days because people testing positive during rebound are thought to remain contagious.
The good news is that rebound cases are mild and mostly inconvenient, not life threatening.
The likelihood of getting rebound after taking Paxlovid was initially thought to be very small, less than 2 percent in most cases, according to the Food and Drug Administration and Pfizer, the company that makes the drug.
But doctors say those estimates now seem too low compared to the number of rebound cases being reported, including high-profile examples at the White House.
President Joe Biden and his wife Jill; Biden’s top medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci; and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each experienced rebound.
Doctors interviewed by ABC News put the real estimate of Paxlovid rebound at anywhere from 10 percent to as much as 30 percent of cases, even though no one knows for sure.
“I’m telling them (patients), it’s very common,” said Dr. George Diaz, of the Infectious Disease Society of America, of Paxlovid rebound.
But Diaz said he’s also telling patients that about a third of people who get COVID experience rebound even without treatment.
“There’s a good chance that you’ll have a rebound whether you take treatment or not,” he said. And with Paxlovid, studies have found “it significantly reduced chance of hospitalization and death,” Diaz added.
US officials more worried about COVID deaths than reports of mild rebound
Health experts and U.S. regulators says they are more concerned that vulnerable patients aren’t getting the drug than they are concerned about healthy people rebounding.
After Walensky wound up with her own case of Paxlovid, the CDC director noted there are still some 400 deaths a day due to COVID and made clear there were no plans to pull back on the government’s recommendation of the drug.
Bob Califf, her FDA counterpart, agreed. He announced on Monday that he tested positive for COVID over the weekend, and a spokesperson confirmed he is being treated with Paxlovid.
“I’m concerned that the discussions about ‘Paxlovid rebound’ are distracting us from the basis for the (drug’s authorization): a substantial reduction in death and hospitalization for high-risk patients,” he tweeted.
Dr. Judith O’Donnell, an infectious disease specialist at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, said she agrees there are serious benefits for people 50-plus as well as younger patients with serious underlying health conditions like asthma, obesity or kidney disease.
“The drug does make a real and measurable difference in the trajectory of the infection,” she said.
So “even though there’s a risk of rebound, that would not prevent me from using it in the correct patient,” she later added.
(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced an investigation into a listeria outbreak that has been reported in six different states and has infected 16 people.
At least 13 people have been hospitalized and one pregnant person suffered a pregnancy loss due to the illness. Additionally, one death has been reported from Maryland, according to a release Wednesday.
Most people reported recently eating meat or cheese from deli counters, according to the CDC, who is now working to identify the specific products that may be contaminated.
The CDC also reported that 11 of the reported cases were found in people of Eastern European descent or who speak Russian.
Cases have been reported in California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
Listeria is a bacterial illness that happens after eating contaminated food. Each year, roughly 1,600 people get sick and 260 people die from listeria contamination. People who are pregnant, adults over 65 and immunocompromised people are most at risk, according to the CDC.
The CDC recommends cleaning the refrigerator, containers and surfaces that may have touched meat or cheese from a deli and to avoid consuming meat and cheese from a deli counter, especially for those considered high risk.
Symptoms of invasive illness caused by listeria — when the bacteria has spread beyond the gut — usually start within two weeks after eating contaminated food and can include fever, fatigue, muscle aches and confusion, among other symptoms. The CDC urged anyone who thinks they are experiencing symptoms of severe listeria illness after eating meat or cheese from a deli to call their healthcare provider right away.
(NEW YORK) — Taylor Dayne is known on stage for her ’80s top-hits like “Tell It to My Heart,” “Prove Your Love” and “Love Will Lead You Back,” but now she is stepping back into the spotlight for a different reason. The Grammy-nominated singer wants to raise awareness about the importance of self-advocacy and routine screenings — which could be lifesaving.
“Life is precious,” Dayne told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
In July, the 60-year-old singer was diagnosed with colon cancer after a routine colonoscopy, a procedure that she has twice a year after doctors found benign polyps in the past. This time, she said doctors discovered a polyp that held an aggressive cancer.
Dayne said her world went “dark” at the word “cancer,” but said that her doctor re-assured her they had found her illness early, which increases the chance of positive treatment outcomes.
“He never even said the stage,” said Dayne, who thought back to her last colonoscopy. “All I could do is [think], ‘OK, five months ago, I know there was nothing. So this is early detection.”
Colon cancer is the third most leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society, but also highly treatable and curable, if found early through a colonoscopy.
Dayne said weeks after she discovered her cancer, she underwent surgery that removed 10 inches of her colon and was declared cancer free right after the procedure.
Although she said she didn’t have to undergo chemo or radiation, she said she experienced a “complication” during her recovery and developed an infection post-operation.
“I ended up staying in the hospital for about 15 days, 20 days,” said Dayne. “There’s no guarantees when they open you up, what’s going to happen. That’s really the truth.”
Once Dayne was released from the hospital, she said she had to focus on getting better, not just physically, but emotionally. Her hospitalization brought her back to traumatic memories from her childhood when she suffered from terrible kidney infections.
“For me, being back, I felt like I was four years old again back in the hospital, basically locked inside my own body without a voice,” said Dayne. “So, this has challenged me mentally, emotionally. I am now back in a therapy program.”
Now, Dayne said she is feeling stronger and wants others, especially women, to talk to their doctors about their own personal risk factors and when they should be screened for things like colon cancer — just in case.
“When you’re really sick, you don’t have the energy, you’re really relying on your champions around you, your soldiers, your people,” she said. “Find the doctor that will tell you the truth. Be a warrior for yourself.”
(NEW YORK) — Filmmaker Cynthia Lowen began the process of making the new documentary film “Battleground” with a genuine curiosity about the anti-abortion movement.
Lowen wanted to understand how, despite being in the minority, anti-abortion movement organizers “were being so successful in advancing their agenda,” she told ABC News Correspondent Phil Lipof.
The new documentary “Battleground,” which was released this year in theaters and is now available on streaming platforms, began in the summer of 2019, a full three years before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Lowen said she started filming in Alabama, where the team was focused at first on documenting the abortion-rights movement.
She quickly realized, she told ABC News, how crucial it would be to frame the film from a minority perspective by including multiple important voices from the anti-abortion movement.
A recent survey by Pew Research Center found that 62% of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases. A 2017 study by the Guttmacher Institute found that nearly 1 in 4 women will have an abortion in their lifetime.
“Battleground” features three women in influential positions within the anti-abortion movement: the president of an influential anti-abortion lobbying organization, the founder of the largest anti-abortion youth organization in the country, and the founder of Pro-Life San Francisco.
Part of the goal of the film is to challenge assumptions and notions about the anti-abortion movement by showing organizers that are neither religious nor conservative about other beliefs.
“What I discovered that really surprised me is that there are a lot of women who are leading the anti-abortion movement,” said Lowen.
One example is Terrisa Bukovinac, the founder of Pro-Life San Francisco, who identifies as an atheist, a feminist and a Democrat with progressive values. “[She] is a very different face of the anti-abortion movement than many people expect,” Lowen said.
“She represents,” Lowen added, “what the movement is trying to do in terms of appealing to young people as single-issue voters.”
“If they don’t grow their base and appeal to non-religious people, to young people and cultivate those single-issue voters,” she added, “they may not continue to have the kind of success and inroads that they’ve had legislatively.”
Despite representing a minority opinion, the anti-abortion movement has been very successful. Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, opening up the opportunity for dozens of states across the country to restrict access to legal abortions.
One of the scenes in the documentary includes audiotape of Lowen’s team obtained from a conversation between evangelical leaders and former President Donald Trump, who was a presidential candidate at the time.
“You really hear this deal being made,” Lowen said, “which is that if Donald Trump will advance the agenda and the priorities of Christian right, the Christian white right will rally their base to get out and vote for him.”
Trump’s success in appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices was instrumental in the anti-abortion movement’s success in overturning Roe v. Wade.
The documentary also includes interviews with leaders from the abortion-rights movement, including President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Alexis McGill Johnson.
Lowen told ABC News she personally disagrees with the anti-abortion movement, saying it “deprives other people of their rights and other people of the opportunity to make health care decisions for themselves that are in their own best interests.”
(NEW YORK) — A COVID-19 outbreak has hit a U.S. station in Antarctica, despite being in one of the most remote areas of the world.
According to the National Science Foundation, which manages McMurdo Station — the largest base on the continent — at least 98 people have tested positive since the beginning of October out of 993 workers.
Of the cases, 64 are active. The NSF said most of the employees have mild symptoms and are isolating in their rooms. It’s unclear how the outbreak began.
To contain the outbreak, the NSF is pausing all inward travel to Antarctica for the next two weeks except for essential travel required for health and safety reasons.
In a statement, the foundation said this is “to lower the density of the population to reduce the possibility of transmission” during which time it will “reassess the situation.”
It’s unclear if the travel pause will affect any research projects. It comes as many scientists head down to the continent for their summer field season, where they work for two to three months.
It is also unknown if the pause will be extended past two weeks.
Those who test positive are required to isolate for five days and then wear a mask for an additional five days.
They are allowed to return to work after receiving two negative tests.
What’s more, the foundation said that its “expert epidemiologist” highly recommends all workers on the base wear KN-95 masks at all times and NSF “will ensure these are available to all residents at McMurdo.”
This is not the first instance of a COVID-19 outbreak occurring in Antarctica.
In December 2020, at least 11 of 33 workers at Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth Polar Station tested positive for the virus.
Additionally, during the same month, 36 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed among staff members at Chile’s Bernardo O’Higgins research station on the Antarctic Peninsula.
McMurdo Station was established in 1955 and is one of three year-round science facilities in Antarctica run by the United States.
According to the NSF, the station is made up of 85 buildings including laboratories, dormitories, repair facilities, a power plant, a firehouse and a water distillation. It also contains a harbor, two landing areas and a helicopter paid.
Scientists focus on research at McMurdo in many fields including biology, geospace sciences, glaciology and climate systems.
(NEW YORK) — A Michigan hospital system has limited the number of young visitors as cases of respiratory viruses continue to spike throughout the state and the country.
Under a new rule that took effect Monday morning, hospitals under the Corewell Health East system will not allow any visitors under the age of 5 to enter buildings.
The only exceptions will be for certain circumstances, such as if a parent or sibling is severely ill or if there is an end-of-life situation.
Cases of respiratory viruses have been increasing across the United States, mostly linked to respiratory synclinal virus, or RSV, and the flu.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, weekly RSV cases rose from 5,845 for the week ending Oct. 1 to 7,679 for the week ending Oct. 29.
Additionally, over the same period, positive tests for influenza reported to the CDC by clinical laboratories have jumped from 2,083 to 7,504, data shows.
What’s more, the cumulative hospitalization rate for flu in the U.S. is currently 2.9 per 100,000, the highest it has been since the 2010-11 season, according to the CDC.
Corewell Health East told local affiliate WXYZ there has been a 500% increase in positive tests for upper respiratory infections among pediatric patients, one of the reasons that led to the implementation of the new rule.
“We’re seeing an unprecedented number of patients in our emergency departments and upper respiratory infection caused by RSV,” Dr. Matthew Denenberg, chief of pediatrics at Corewell Health East, said. “It’s been a really early and severe year for RSV. Worse than any other year that I’ve seen. I’ve been doing this 20 years.”
According to state data, 72.2% of pediatric hospital beds across Michigan are occupied. Denenberg said the pediatric intensive care unit at his hospital has reached capacity.
“Our pediatric intensive care unit here at Corewell East in Royal Oak has been full consistently for the last few weeks,” he said in reference to a hospital 17 miles northwest of Detroit. “In fact, we have some ICU patients that are, you know, boarding over in the adult spaces.”
Corewell Health did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Last week Michigan health officials revealed that a 6-year-old boy died after developing complications from RSV.
The child is from Macomb County, which is made up of northern Metro Detroit and the immediate surrounding area.
According to the CDC, between 100 and 500 pediatric deaths occur from RSV every year.
At the time, Denenberg told “Good Morning America” deaths are not common and usually occur among those with pre-existing conditions.
“Very, very few children die from RSV, and the kids that get that sick, it’s usually a child that has an underlying illness,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Across the country, pediatric bed occupancy is the highest it’s been in two years, with 78% of the estimated 40,000 beds filled with patients, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The rise in occupancy — a 2% increase from last week and a 7% increase from mid-October — comes amid a nationwide surge in cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, influenza and rhinovirus/enterovirus (RV/EV).
Amid the surge, five states — Arizona, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Kentucky and Texas — continue to be using at or above 90% of pediatric hospital beds.
Late last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an official health advisory in response to the rise in respiratory infections in children.
The health advisory warned that “Co-circulation of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza viruses, SARS-CoV-2, and others could place stress on healthcare systems this fall and winter.”
This year, rates of RSV-associated hospitalizations began to increase during late spring and continued to increase through the summer and into early fall. Preliminary data from October shows weekly rates of RSV-associated hospitalizations among children younger than 18 years old are higher than rates observed during similar weeks in recent years.
While RSV activity appears to be plateauing in some places, the timing, intensity and severity of the current RSV season are uncertain.
RSV is a contagious virus that can spread from viral respiratory droplets transferred from an infected person’s cough or sneeze; from direct contact with the virus, like kissing the face of a child with RSV; and from touching surfaces, like tables, doorknobs and crib rails, that have the virus on them and then touching your eyes, nose or mouth before hand-washing, according to the CDC.
People infected with RSV are usually contagious for three to eight days, but some infants can continue to spread the virus even after they stop showing symptoms, for as long as four weeks, according to the CDC.
Among children, premature infants and young children with weakened immune systems or congenital heart or chronic lung disease are the most vulnerable to complications from RSV.
According to the CDC, death from RSV is rare. There are between 100 to 500 pediatric deaths and 14,000 adult deaths each year related to RSV, with the actual figure likely being higher due to undercounting.
At the same time as RSV cases are surging, positive tests for influenza reported to the CDC by clinical laboratories jumped from 2,083 to 7,504 in October, data shows.
What’s more, the cumulative hospitalization rate for flu in the U.S. is currently 2.9 per 100,000, the highest it has been since the 2010-11 season, according to the CDC.
Experts told ABC News that a combination of waning immunity to COVID and lack of exposure to other viruses, combined with close gatherings indoors, is fueling a “perfect storm.”
“Mostly the issue is there’s low population immunity and kids are, once again, gathered again, and this is facilitating rapid spread of viruses like RSV,” Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said. “And because of the sheer volume of infection, when you have that larger denominator, you have a situation where a portion of those kids are going to require hospital treatment. And because of that, our hospitals are spread thin, not only for bed capacity, but also for critical staffing, of those beds.”
He added, “So the combination of shortages, bed capacity and rising viral illness all make for an unfortunate perfect storm that we’re seeing happen everywhere right now.”
In Michigan, a hospital system on Monday began limiting the number of young visitors as cases of respiratory viruses continue to spike throughout the state and the country.
Under a new rule, hospitals under the Corewell Health East system will not allow any visitors under the age of 5 to enter buildings.
The only exceptions will be for certain circumstances, such as if a parent or sibling is severely ill or if there is an end-of-life situation.
(NEW YORK) — Amid a nationwide surge in cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, comedian and actress Amy Schumer revealed that her 3-year-old son was hospitalized due to the virus.
Schumer shared in an Instagram post Sunday that her son Gene was taken to the emergency room and hospitalized the same week she was in rehearsals to host Saturday Night Live.
“I missed Thursday rehearsals when my son was rushed to ER and admitted for RSV,” Schumer wrote. “Shout out to all the parents going though this right now.”
She shared a photo of herself sitting in the hospital with Gene, wearing a respiratory mask.
Schumer, who gave birth to Gene, her only child, in May 2019, later wrote that her son is “home and better.”
The U.S. is seeing more than twice as many cases per week compared to the same period last year, according to ABC News contributor Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Late last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an official health advisory in response to the rise in respiratory infections in children.
In addition to RSV, the number of cases of influenza and rhinovirus/enterovirus (RV/EV) are higher than usual for this time of year, especially among children, according to the CDC.
Respiratory illnesses are appearing earlier and in more people than in recent years. The federal health agency says there have also been early increases in flu activity across most of the U.S., with indications that this season could be much more severe than the recent seasons.
What parents should know about RSV
RSV is a contagious virus that can spread from viral respiratory droplets transferred from an infected person’s cough or sneeze; from direct contact with the virus, like kissing the face of a child with RSV; and from touching surfaces, like tables, doorknobs and crib rails, that have the virus on them and then touching your eyes, nose or mouth before hand-washing, according to the CDC.
People infected with RSV are usually contagious for three to eight days, but some infants can continue to spread the virus even after they stop showing symptoms, for as long as four weeks, according to the CDC.
Among children, premature infants and young children with weakened immune systems or congenital heart or chronic lung disease are the most vulnerable to complications from RSV.
According to the CDC, death from RSV is rare. There are between 100 to 500 pediatric deaths and 14,000 adult deaths each year related to RSV, with the actual figure likely being higher due to undercounting.
“Pretty much all kids have gotten RSV at least once by the time they turn 2, but it’s really younger kids, especially those under 6 months of age, who can really have trouble with RSV and sometimes end up in the hospital,” Dr. William Linam, pediatric infectious disease doctor at Children’s Hospital of Atlanta, told ABC News last year. “That’s where we want to get the word out, for families with young children or children with medical conditions, making sure they’re aware this is going on.”
In the first two to four days of contracting RSV, a child may show symptoms like fever, runny nose and congestion.
Later on, the symptoms may escalate to coughing, wheezing and difficulty breathing.
Parents should also be alerted to symptoms including dehydration and not eating, according to Linam.
“Not making a wet diaper in over eight hours is often a good marker that a child is dehydrated and a good reason to seek medical care,” he said. “Sometimes kids under 6 months of age can have pauses when they’re breathing and that’s something to get medical attention for right away.”
Infants and toddlers can usually recover at home with RSV unless they start to have difficulty breathing, are not eating or drinking, or appear more tired than usual, in which case parents should contact their pediatrician and/or take their child to the emergency room.
At-home care for kids with RSV can include Tylenol and Motrin for fevers, as well as making sure the child is hydrated and eating.
Parents can help protect their kids from RSV by continuing to follow as much as possible the three Ws of the pandemic: wear a mask, wash your hands and watch your distance, according to Linam.
Infants who are either born prematurely (less than 35 weeks) or born with chronic lung disease may benefit from a medication to prevent complications of RSV since they are at increased risk of severe disease. Parents should discuss this with their pediatrician.
