MEMPHIS, Tenn — Hospitals across the country are strained from cases of Respiratory Syncytial Virus infections, or RSV. And doctors said it'll only get worse in the coming months.
ABC News reports 75% of the country's 40,000 pediatric beds are currently full. And Doctors fear the U.S. could face a ‘triple-demic’ with influenza, RSV, and COVID-19 hitting at the same time.
Tennessee and Mississippi are seeing moderate to high levels of flu cases. At the Spence and Becky Wilson Baptist Children’s Hospital, doctors said they are seeing an increase in pediatric hospitalizations, a majority of which are RSV patients but also many flu cases.
Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis told ABC24 it is seeing an uptick in RSV cases in children, and that’s on top of treating patients with influenza. They said the emergency room at Le Bonheur has been seeing almost 50 children a day with either RSV or the flu. And they said about 187 per day are coming in for asthma issues.
Le bonheur's infectious disease expert Doctor Sandy Arnold said they are reaching max capacity with pediatric flu and RSV cases.
“We do have probably between 8-10 or more in the hospital every day. Our ICU is full. Our floors are full. We are overflowing patients that are staying in the emergency room. We've had to open up extra beds in treatment rooms, and this is predominantly due to respiratory viruses super imposed on all the other things that we normally see,” said Dr Arnold.
Dr. Arnold said RSV can last a few days for some children or up to a few weeks for others. Arnold said masking, washing hands, and staying home when sick are the best ways to protect children and others from the virus.
CNS Healthcare announced Wednesday opening trials for testing an official RSV vaccine.
There is a treatment, but it is only approved for the most at-risk children with severe RSV cases.