(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is the most common cause of hospitalization among children under the age of one year. It is often mistaken for the common cold, but experts say recognizing the difference is crucial to detecting and treating RSV.
“Most babies recover on their own, but some develop severe symptoms that can be life-threatening,” said Octavio Ramilo, MD, division chief of Infectious Diseases at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “The first common sign of RSV is that they won’t take their bottle, and then parents may also notice that their baby is breathing more rapidly than normal.”
Ramilo says that at Nationwide Children’s Hospital alone there were about 600 babies hospitalized for RSV last year and more than a thousand infants with the virus were brought to the emergency room.
Parents and caregivers can help prevent RSV in babies by washing their hands often, disinfecting hard surfaces and avoiding sharing dishes and utensils. It also helps to reduce the number of people a baby is exposed to as their immune system continues to develop. “Babies under three months of age are very prone to get sicker for two reasons: their lungs are very small and therefore unable to handle a lot of inflammation, and the white blood cells of their immune systems that protect us against infections are not ready yet,” said Ramilo.
Currently, babies at high-risk for RSV are given an injection to lessen the effects of the virus, but researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital are working on a vaccine to prevent RSV on a global scale.
