United States: As winter approaches, there are more children in North Texas who are getting sick with respiratory illnesses also Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth has seen a massive, big increase in visits to the emergency room just because of all these respiratory viruses.
In just three days, doctors treated over 1,100 kids, which is the highest number the hospital has ever seen.
Signs seen in many patients include ear temperatures between 99°F and 100°F, mild or absent cough, rhinitis and nasal congestion, and abdominal puzzles.
As reported by CBS News, it reallocated this rise to a rise in cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and walking pneumonia. Dr. Dan Guzman of Cook Children’s: ‘‘Be especially careful on your child’s health during the surge.’’
When your child has fever for more than five or six days, or they’re having trouble breathing, in addition to vomiting and having diarrhea, and you suspect your child is dehydrated, I think that is a more emergent situation, Guzman said. “At that point you can bring your child to one of our urgent cares or go to the emergency room.
” More severe RSV symptoms include when the child struggles to breathe normally, complain of chest pain continuously, manifest signs of bluish discoloration around the mouth or fingers, or have a fever that lasts more than five days.
This is especially important for parents of infants; any fever in children under two months should be taken to the hospital.
Other severe signs of RSV are noisy breathing, breathing with the ribs showing, or breathing very fast with flaring of the nostrils accompanied with chest pain or pain with breathing, and the skin, lips, or nail bed appearing bluish. If a child has had fever for more than 5 days or any of the following symptoms, the child should be taken to the hospital.
Even though last weekend wasn’t the worst, people with young children should be even more careful especially parents of the infants. Any person who is below the age of two months developing a fever must be actually rushed to the hospital because infants are more at risk.
As a result, we should teach our children to wash their hands frequently, avoid close contact with people with a cold or flu, and skip school or work if they have symptoms of a respiratory infection.