Paediatric Respiratory Illness Common In Mexico, Central America Skyrockets 234% Among Arizona Infants, Toddlers



Home » Medical » Paediatric Respiratory Illness Common In Mexico, Central America Skyrockets 234% Among Arizona Infants, Toddlers

Feb 12, 2015

Last year, 24% of Guatamalan children under 5 got RSV.

Excerpted from The Arizona Republic: Respiratory syncytial virus, a highly contagious respiratory illness in young children, has skyrocketed at a 234 percent increase from last year, according to documents from the Arizona Department of Health Services.

This increase is affecting families across the Valley as young children show signs of what at first appears to be a common cold which quickly transforms into a virus that affects the lungs, heart, or immune system.

In the 2013-2014 season there were 783 laboratory-confirmed cases of RSV. The number of confirmed cases shot up to 2,613 this year, a number that could continue to climb through the end of cold and flu season, according to hospital administrators.
Erin Able, an Arizona mother of a 6-week-old child had no clue that her son had RSV or the seriousness of the virus until her baby was taken in an ambulance to the hospital.

“Tuesday morning at 7:45 I went in (to the doctor’s office) and they were like ‘We’re going to call an ambulance’,” said Able.
Her son Atlee’s oxygen levels had gotten so low that he had to be rushed to Cardon Children’s Medical Center where he was diagnosed with RSV and the flu.

Able said that on Tuesday morning Atlee looked a little bluish, was extremely lethargic, and had no appetite and that it all came on very quickly.

Atlee may have caught RSV from his three other siblings at home, or even from his mother herself.

Adults can carry the virus which appears as a common head cold but can be passed on to a child as RSV, said Kimberly Byrne, the Pediatric Asthma Program manager and nurse at Cardon Children’s Medical Center.

The other symptoms Able described was the difficulty in her child’s breathing.

“I could see when he was laying down that it was really hard to breathe,” said Able.

Bryne explained further that “When babies breathe fast for a long time they will stop breathing because their muscles and their stomach are not as fast as an adult.”

When a child breathes and you see the skin going underneath the rib cage or clavicle, that means that child is using other muscles to keep breathing said Byrne.

These are all major signs of respiratory distress and that the child needs oxygen.

Just down the hall from Atlee another mother said she wished she had taken her young son to the hospital as soon as she saw his labored breathing.

Carmen Saavedra said her 14-month-old son, Edmundo, was initially misdiagnosed with pneumonia before doctors realized he also had RSV.

“Prior to going to the E.R., we thought it was just a cold,” said Saavedra.

Saavedra saw that the antibiotics were not working and rushed her son into urgent care when she saw his 103 degree fever. It turned out that Edmundo was getting no oxygen to his lungs and was dehydrated. Keep reading

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