Children’s hospitals grapple with a nationwide surge in RSV infections

(NPR) An unseasonably early spike in respiratory syncytial virus cases among young children is pushing some hospitals to capacity. RSV, as it’s called, is a respiratory virus that mostly manifests as a mild illness with cold-like symptoms in adults but can cause pneumonia and bronchiolitis in very young children. It can be life-threatening in infants and young adults. Most years, infections typically occur in the late fall and winter, often overlapping with flu season. But at least since last year, physicians have begun seeing surges starting during summer months. Children’s hospitals in the Washington, D.C. area, including Children’s National Hospital, Inova Fairfax and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, are at or near capacity, DCist reported.