Respiratory virus surging in El Paso children sooner than normal

EL PASO, Texas (CBS4) — Respiratory Syncytial Virus is normally more prominent in the fall and winter season but, cases are being detected now that kids in El Paso are back in the classroom.

Yvette Pierce's two-year-old son was hospitalized for one week with RSV.

“It does get a little eerie that it’s not just COVID. It’s other viruses that are really hitting kids hard and causing them to be in hospital,” Yvette Pierce said. “We just kept waiting for his oxygen to stabilize.”

Local doctors said they are seeing an off-season surge of RSV.

Symptoms of the virus can often be confused with COVID-19 which is causing concern for parents.

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However, when some parents took their kids to get tested it turned out to be RSV.

“It will begin with a mild runny nose, cough, congestion, fever,” Doctor Gilberto Gomez at 915 Pediatrics said. “Testing is the only way to differentiate one from the other.”

Gomez said symptoms will be mild to start but could become severe.

“Depending on the age of the child. Sometimes it takes a little longer for them to recuperate,” Gomez said.

“That worried me a lot because I know with RSV it does impact the respiratory and can cause deaths,” Pierce said.

Data collected by the CDC shows the rapid decrease in the positivity rate of RSV during 2020.

The data coincides with lockdowns and mask mandates.

When we entered 2021 and the summer months, RSV cases skyrocketed.

“It is spread via respiratory droplets so without masks and kids coughing, RSV is there,” Gomez said.

At the El Paso Children's Hospital, 21 cases of RSV were reported in July.

The number more than doubled to 57 in August, 24 of which required admission.

That's also when school started back up for many districts.

“If the kids are wearing a mask it prevents the spread and will definitely decrease the incidents,” Gomez said. “Without masks it’ll definitely go up.”

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