RSV Information
What is RSV?
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a highly contagious respiratory virus that can infect people of all ages. This common virus typically causes mild symptoms like those of the common cold. Most people will have contracted RSV by the time they are two years old. Severe RSV infection can be unpredictable, causing an estimated 58,000 hospitalizations each year in children younger than five, and making it the leading cause of hospitalization in all infants under 12 months of age.
What are the Symptoms?
Initial signs of RSV are similar to mild cold symptoms, including congestion, runny nose, fever, cough and sore throat. Very young infants may be irritable, fatigued and have breathing difficulties. Normally these symptoms will clear up on their own in a few days.
A barking or wheezing cough can be one of the first signs of a more serious illness. In these instances, the virus has spread to the lower respiratory tract, causing inflammation of the small airways entering the lungs. This can lead to pneumonia or bronchiolitis.
What is the treatment?
Mild RSV infections will go away in a week or two without treatment. You should call your child's doctor If they are having trouble breathing, has poor appetite or decreased activity levels, cold symptoms that become severe, or they have a shallow cough that continues throughout the day and night. Students are able to return to school when they have been fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication, however, consideration of their concentration and work production are impacted by lingering symptoms.