RSV Awareness — Know the Facts! #RSVPrevention

This year’s win­ter ill­ness sea­son seems espe­cially bad. Just about every­one I know has come down with some­thing (includ­ing every­one in our own house). In the news, there is a lot of talk of the flu and norovirus (the nasty stom­ach bug). But, there is another virus you should be aware of this time of year…RSV. Res­pi­ra­tory syn­cy­tial virus (RSV) is a com­mon, sea­sonal virus that affects two-thirds of all infants by age one and almost 100% of babies by age two, because it’s highly con­ta­gious. RSV typ­i­cally causes mild to mod­er­ate cold-like symp­toms, but in some babies (pre­ma­ture infants are most at risk) it results in a seri­ous res­pi­ra­tory infec­tion. In fact, RSV infec­tion is the lead­ing cause of infant hos­pi­tal­iza­tion, respon­si­ble for more than 125,000 hos­pi­tal­iza­tions and up to 500 infant deaths each year.Unfor­tu­nately, we just dealt with RSV at our house. Baby Brother had it (and his pedi­a­tri­cian said it is quite pos­si­ble that Mr. Mom Endeav­ors & I also had the bug as well. Peo­ple of any age can con­tract the virus. It just tends to be extra seri­ous in babies). We were all wheez­ing and coughing–for weeks! Baby Brother and I still have a cough! But, thank­fully, it didn’t result in an seri­ous infec­tion for him. Though we tried a breath­ing treat­ment in the Dr.‘s office, it didn’t work. So, we just had to mon­i­tor him for some very spe­cific symp­toms that indi­cate a seri­ous RSV infec­tion & would require imme­di­ate atten­tion, including:

• Cough­ing or wheez­ing that does not stop
• Fast or labored/troubled breathing
• Spread-out nos­trils and/or a caved-in chest when try­ing to breathe
• Bluish color around the mouth or fingernails
• Fever (espe­cially if it is over 100.4°F in infants under 3 months of age)

Thank­fully, none of those symp­toms ever occurred. And, even though the cough per­sists, we’ve been back to the doc­tor and Baby Brother’s lungs sound MUCH bet­ter. No more signs of RSV! Here are a few facts about RSV that all par­ents, care­givers and loved ones should know:

• Almost every baby will con­tract RSV by age 2, but only 1/3 of moms say they’ve heard of the virus (so good thing you’re read­ing this post! )
• RSV occurs in epi­demics each fall through spring. The CDC has defined “RSV sea­son” as Novem­ber through March for most parts of North America.
• Cer­tain babies are at an increased risk of devel­op­ing seri­ous RSV infec­tion, so it’s impor­tant to speak with a pedi­a­tri­cian to deter­mine if a baby may be at high risk for RSV, and dis­cuss pre­ven­tive measures.
• If you’re child is exhibit­ing cold-like symp­toms, RSV could be the cul­prit. Know the symp­toms of seri­ous RSV infec­tion which include: per­sis­tent cough­ing or wheez­ing; rapid, dif­fi­cult, or gasp­ing breaths; blue color on the lips, mouth, or under the fin­ger­nails; high fever; extreme fatigue; and dif­fi­culty feed­ing. Par­ents should con­tact a med­ical pro­fes­sional imme­di­ately upon signs of these symptoms.
• There is no treat­ment for RSV, so it’s impor­tant for par­ents to take pre­ven­tive steps to help pro­tect their child (wash hands, toys, bed­ding fre­quently; avoid crowds and cig­a­rette smoke).

For more infor­ma­tion on RSV, the symp­toms, or pre­ven­tion, be sure to visit RSVProtection.com and fol­low #RSVPro­tec­tion on Twitter.

Dis­clo­sure: I wrote this review while par­tic­i­pat­ing in a cam­paign for Mom Cen­tral Con­sult­ing on behalf of Med­Im­mune and I received a pro­mo­tional item to thank me for my par­tic­i­pa­tion. How­ever, as always all expe­ri­ences are entirely my own & I know first hand how impor­tant this topic is!