san antonio – Taylor Robbie Perez said the week her daughter Isabel was diagnosed with the following illness: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) It felt like a roller coaster.
“She said no right away,” Robbie Perez said. She said: “She went from being so happy and cheerful and smiling to the point where she didn’t want to eat and didn’t want to do anything except be held and sleep.”
Doctors say RSV initially presents as mild cold-like symptoms. But for those at risk, it can cause serious damage.
Doctors in San Antonio say they are currently seeing an increase in RSV cases. That is to be expected as winter approaches.
This week, CDC has issued a health advisory What to do now for doctors Nilsevimab supply is limitedmonoclonal antibody immunization that helps RSV.
“RSV tends to be a very seasonal disease, especially in South Texas,” said Dr. Tarak Patel, a pediatric pulmonologist at Baptist Children’s Hospital.
Patel said part of the reason for the nilsevimab shortage is production.
“Part of the reason is that it was just recently approved by the manufacturer,” Patel said. “There was not enough time to meet the demand of providing sufficient quantities of medicines to the general public.”
Jason Bowling, chief hospital epidemiologist at the university’s School of Health Sciences, said the number of RSV cases in hospitals continues to rise.
“In fact, last week we saw an increase of about 63% in our virology reports,” Bowling said. “If you look at the state numbers, it’s on the rise.”
Boling said the elderly and children under 1 year of age are most at risk for developing severe cases and complications from RSV. He said washing your hands and staying away from sick people are the best protection other than vaccines or antibodies. But he said a shortage of antibody vaccinations was still hurting university health.
“There are some things this year that we haven’t seen before with RSV. So we have two different vaccines, and we also have long-acting monoclonal antibodies,” Bowling said. “What’s really in short supply is this new long-acting monoclonal antibody. We’re no different. We’re in very short supply here. It’s only being given to babies who are at the highest risk. .”
Robbie Perez’s daughter was released from the hospital Thursday after a week of treatment and is now recovering at home.
Robbie Perez said that since her daughter was 9 months old, staying on the lookout for her child’s symptoms and acting early helped her family recover.
“They get really bad, and they get really sick, and it’s really fast,” Robbie Perez said. “Her personality is coming back and she’s starting to laugh again. It’s been really hard on her because she hasn’t seen that for a few days.”
If you would like to know more about the symptoms of RSV, please click here.
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