TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Having respiratory syncytial virus, or as it’s better known, RSV, is a scary experience Shauntel Pinnick was hoping her four-year-old daughter wouldn’t have to go through again.
Her daughter had RSV when she was just 18 days old and was hospitalized at Tucson Medical Center’s TMC for Children department.
She had to take her again this week after she contracted RSV.
“She woke up and she was coughing and struggling to breathe and fever was 103.7,” Pinnick described.
Dr. Sean Elliott, Tucson Medical Center’s pediatric infectious diseases specialist said kids can have a cough, congestion and low grade fever when they contract RSV, and and in some cases the skin between their ribs could pull in when they breath.
Elliott said there’s been a rise in RSV in babies and kids up to 4 years old. He said its cause comes down to immune systems and said when everyone was wearing a mask during the pandemic, kids were shielded from viruses.
“They’ve not been exposed to viruses. They don’t have their innate antibody protection. Here we are today. The masks are off. The kids are in school, it’s starting to get a little bit cold and the viruses are having a heyday,” Elliott said.
He said at Tucson Medical Center, cases are 200 percent higher and said some days the emergency room is seeing even more cases.
Pinnick said it’s an experience she also had with her daughter.
“I have never seen though so many kids coming in. As we were sitting in the waiting room it was little kid after baby after baby with the same symptoms,” Pinnick said.
She said the doctors at TMC took great care of her daughter, but she had to take her daughter home because the RSV wasn’t in her lungs.
Elliott said patients aren’t being be turned away, but they are prioritizing patients with more severe symptoms.
The demand in patients led Tucson Medical Center to open two clinics.
“This is an unusual step and it’s being taken in response to a very very unusual, you might even say emergency setting, for respiratory illness,” Elliott said.
Meanwhile Banner Health is implementing visitor restrictions in response to the high cases of RSV, including restricting people if they have symptoms. Visitors over 2 years old will need to wear a mask and they are restricting visitors in the NICU, pediatrics and obstetrics units.
Elliott said there aren’t any treatments for the virus itself, but there are options like using oxygen and breathing machines.
“If they are not feeling good, just to keep them home,” Pinnick said.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
