BUFFALO N.Y. (WKBW) — Each year 58 thousand children under the age of five are hospitalized with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). The last Western New York surge was nearly three years ago when more that 180 children were admitted to Oishei Children's Hospital in December of 2019.
But in the last month Oishei has had more than three hundred RSV admissions and mom of one Tamea Dixon said that worries her.
"Its really worrisome to see how do they go back to regular normal life and not get sick," Dixon said.
It's a top concern, she said, which is heavy on her heart. Her son, Kayden Livingston, is 13-years-old. He enjoys chess, playing basketball and hanging out with friends.
"He really missed being around people for two years," she said.
Dixon said she already worries about COVID and the Flu. But now she adds on RSV.
"Its very hard to think about all the germs everywhere," she said. "Its stressful. I think its just stressful because us parents we think about the world shutting down again."
Oishei Children's Hospital Doctor Stephen Turkovich said parents need to be cautious when it comes to RSV.
"We are seeing our ICU being overwhelmed," he said.
He tells me one of the key issues is that the symptoms of the Flu, COVID and RSV are almost identical.
"So the only true way to distinguish them is a test. Swab of the nose as we are all familiar with with COVID," Turkovich said.
Much like the Flu, he added, cases of RSV were almost non-existent over the last two years because of the pandemic.
"Without having RSV around since early 2020, we've got two years worth of children who don't have any immunity," he said. "We also have a return to normalcy. So people aren't masking, people are not social distancing, people are gathering. So both of those together really a perfect storm for a virus to spread pretty quickly."
