Respiratory virus for children waning, say Arkansas hospitals

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas Children’s Northwest in Springdale is beginning to see fewer children with a respiratory virus after seeing abnormally high rates the past few months, officials said.

However, the hospital continues to see a large number of flu cases.

Children’s had 95 patients test positive for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, in January, compared with 397 patients in December and 290 in November, according to Nicole Huddleston, spokeswoman.

Children’s had 592 patients test positive for the flu in January, compared with 671 in December and 45 in November.

Hilary DeMillo, spokeswoman at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, confirmed the trends for RSV and the flu are similar there.

“We’ve been increasing staffing as we need to,” said Dr. Rob Williams, chief medical officer and emergency room physician at Children’s Northwest. “There have been times when that demand is overwhelming.”

Some infants are admitted through the emergency room and given oxygen, hydration and nasal suctioning, he said.

The hospital had about 2 ½ times as many RSV cases this season than last season and more than seven times

as many flu cases, which can be attributed in part to the hospital opening just months before flu and RSV season in 2018, Huddleston said.

Coughing and difficulty breathing are the most common signs of RSV, Williams said. Most children get the virus at some point and recover with relatively little difficultly, but the virus can be more serious for infants younger than 6 months, he said.

RSV causes between 10,000 and 14,000 deaths in United States each year, said Jennifer Dillaha, medical director for immunizations at the Arkansas Department of Health.

Most of those deaths are older adults largely because RSV can lead to other respiratory tract infections, she said.

RSV is common and less serious in children, although infants especially sometimes have to stay in the hospital when diagnosed, Dillaha said.

No vaccine exists for RSV, but handwashing and staying away from sick people can help prevent catching it. “Stay home when you’re sick,” she said.

While those same actions can help prevent the flu, Dillaha said it’s not too late to get the flu vaccine.

Thirty-six people in Arkansas have died of the flu since Sept. 29, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.

This flu season has seen 576 flu-related hospital admissions in Arkansas, according to the department.