Guam has seen an increased number of children’s hospitalizations because of the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and at least one death related to it.
right now as you say, there s big shortages of children s tylenol and other things, including antibiotics that don t work against viral illnesses. arthel: so what are you most concerned about now that families are gathering, people are traveling. molly: yeah, my biggest concern is that children specifically infants that get rsv infection, the dominant infection out there, the virus that is circulating and almost ubiquitous, there s not enough hospital beds for those kids if they get sick. this is a common cold virus for the vast majority of people that contract it. virtually everybody has gotten one of these common viruses, rsv, influenza and some covid still in the community. by and large, they re causing common cold symptoms and infant deaths right now, my concern is
avoiding people that are sick. that s what we can do. in part, many viruses are ubiquitous and there s no medication that treats rsv infection or the flu this year. but the children s tylenol that people are reaching for, they should recognize that they do treat the symptoms of fever but they don t treat the virus or illness itself. just symptomatic relief. arthel: so relief. then they have to get the proper care. finally, what are you expecting, dr. makary for now and throughout the winter? we re hoping that what we re seeing in the flu season and rsv season being so early this year is not a sign of worse infections to come or a bigger burden on the community. instead, it s moved up in its time frame. we re hoping it may be downhill. of course, mother nature gets
Due to high levels of RSV infections, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh has stood up a tent outside its emergency department to care for the surging number of patients.