- Hamas claims infant hostage, 4-year-old brother known as ‘The Reds’ killed along with mom in IDF shelling as Israel investigates New York Post
- Concern grows over children believed to still be in Hamas captivity CBS News
- Family member details ‘inhumane’ kidnapping of baby boy, family still held by Palestinian terrorists Fox News
- Family of baby Kfir Bibas worried 10-month old will not be freed by the end of ceasefire The Telegraph
- IDF says looking into Hamas claims on wellbeing of Bibas family members held hostage The Times of Israel
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Tag Archives: infant
Buffalo Games Chuckle & Roar’s ‘water beads’ recalled after infant death – The Washington Post – The Washington Post
- Buffalo Games Chuckle & Roar’s ‘water beads’ recalled after infant death – The Washington Post The Washington Post
- Water beads activity kits sold at Target recalled due to ingestion, choking risks CBS Mornings
- Buffalo Games Recalls Chuckle & Roar Ultimate Water Beads Activity Kits Due to Serious Ingestion, Choking and Obstruction Hazards; One Infant Death Reported; Sold Exclusively at Target Consumer Product Safety Commission
- Children’s water beads activity kits sold at Target voluntarily recalled due to ingestion, choking risks CBS News
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Nurse arrested after allegedly slamming 2-day-old infant into a bassinet – CBS News
- Nurse arrested after allegedly slamming 2-day-old infant into a bassinet CBS News
- Long Island nurse arrested after allegedly slamming newborn facedown into bassinet Yahoo News
- Nurse arrested after she was caught on video allegedly slamming newborn facedown into bassinet KPRC Click2Houston
- ‘Truly Disturbing:’ Long Island Hospital Nurse Fired Over Baby Slam Arrested Months Later NBC New York
- New York nurse filmed ‘violently slamming’ newborn ‘facedown into his bassinet’ arrested and charged Law & Crime
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Texas couple say CPS officials took infant in dispute over jaundice – New York Post
- Texas couple say CPS officials took infant in dispute over jaundice New York Post
- Temecia and Rodney Jackson, parents who had home birth, say their child was wrongfully taken by Texas Department of Family and Protective Services CBS News
- Texas parents demand newborn back from child protective services after doctor has baby removed WLS-TV
- Dallas-area couple says Texas authorities took away their baby just because they had a home birth KPRC Click2Houston
- Lawmaker pressing for answers after CPS takes custody of North Texas newborn over jaundice concerns WFAA
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Infant screen time could impact academic success, study says
CNN
—
Letting infants watch tablets and TV may be impairing their academic achievement and emotional well-being later on, according to a new study.
Researchers found that increased use of screen time during infancy was associated with poorer executive functioning once the child was 9 years old, according to the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
Executive functioning skills are mental processes that “enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully,” according to the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child.
Those executive functioning skills are important for higher-level cognition, such as emotional regulation, learning, academic achievement and mental health, according to the study. They influence our success socially, academically, professionally and in how we care for ourselves, said Dr. Erika Chiappini, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
“Though these cognitive processes naturally develop from infancy through adulthood, they are also impacted by the experiences that we have and when we have them in our development,” said Chiappini, who was not involved in the study, in an email.
The results support recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which discourages all screen time before 18 months old, with the exception of video chatting, said Dr. Joyce Harrison, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Harrison was not involved in the research.
The study looked at data from Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes, or GUSTO, which surveyed women from all socioeconomic backgrounds during their first trimester of pregnancy. The sample was made up of 437 children who underwent electroencephalography (EEG) scans, which are used to look at the neural pathways of cognitive functions in the brain, at age 1, 18 months and 9 years old.
The parents reported each child’s screen time, and researchers found there was an association between screen time in infancy and attention and executive function at 9 years old, according to the study.
Further research needs to be done, however, to determine if the screen time caused the impairments in executive function or if there are other factors in the child’s environment that predispose them to both more screen time and poorer executive functioning, the study noted.
In a learning-packed time like infancy, one of the big problems with screen use is that young children aren’t learning much from them, according to AAP.
“There is no substitute for adult interaction, modeling and teaching,” Harrison said.
Babies have a hard time interpreting information presented in two dimensions, such as on screens, and have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality, Chiappini said.
“Babies and kids are also social learners and very much benefit from the back-and-forth interaction with others (adults and kids) which is hard to achieve with screens,” Chiappini said via email.
When it comes to emotional regulation, infants and toddlers can learn from their caregivers when they model self-control or help to label emotions and appropriate expressions, she added.
For example, you can give a young child options for what they can do when they are mad, like taking a break or breathing deeply instead of inappropriate behaviors like hitting, Harrison said.
Talking about emotions can be too abstract for preschool-age kids, and in those cases using color zones to talk about emotions can be helpful, said Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics at Michigan Medicine C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. Radesky was not involved in the research.
Calm and content can be green; worried or agitated can be yellow; and upset or angry can be red, using graphics or images of faces to help kids match what they’re feeling with their color zone. To reinforce it, adults can talk about their own emotions in terms of colors in front of their kids, Radesky said in a CNN previous article.
Parents and children can go through the colors together and come up with calming tools for the different zones, she added.
To strengthen those executive function skills, Harrison says it’s important to provide structured engagement where a child can work through solving problems to the extent that they can at their developmental level — instead of having problems solved for them.
And yet, sometimes parents just need to get the laundry done or attend a work meeting, and screens can feel like an effective distraction.
For very young children, it’s probably still best to avoid screen time, Harrison emphasized.
Instead, try to involve the child in house chores, she said.
“Give your toddler some clothes to fold alongside you while you are trying to get laundry done or keep your infant safely in a position where you can make frequent eye contact while you are engaged your chore,” Harrison said via email.
For older preschoolers, save up your screen time to use strategically, she said.
“For example, their one hour of screen time can be reserved for a time when you have an important video meeting to attend,” Harrison said.
And there is some content that can help teach emotional regulation when your tank is empty. Finding media that is aimed at speaking to children directly about emotions — like Daniel Tiger or Elmo Belly Breathing — can be like a meditation instead of distraction, Radesky previously told CNN.
And you can make screen time works better by engaging your child while they watch, Chiappini said. Ask questions like “what is that character feeling?” and “what could they do to help their friend?” she added.
Raising children is a complex and sometimes overwhelming task, and no caregiver can give their child everything they want to all the time, Radesky said.
Can Intermittent Fasting Help Combat Youth Obesity?
Parents and doctors are looking for new strategies to help adolescents with obesity. One controversial approach drawing the interest of some families is intermittent fasting, which limits people to eating for just a part of the day or week.
Intermittent fasting has gained traction among adults who use it to try to manage weight and improve health. Doctors have largely avoided trying it with adolescents out of concern that introducing a fasting period to their schedules might result in nutritional gaps or trigger eating disorders when teens are rapidly growing and developing.
Now, a small number of doctors and researchers are evaluating types of intermittent fasting in adolescents, searching for solutions as rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes rise. One pediatric endocrinologist in Los Angeles is launching a clinical trial looking at eating within a set time window in adolescents with obesity. Researchers in Australia are completing a separate trial, the results of which they expect to publish later this year.
Roughly one-fifth of children in the U.S. are considered obese, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pediatricians are so concerned that the American Academy of Pediatrics for the first time this month recommended physicians offer weight-loss drugs for children with obesity.
Any approach that limits when and how an adolescent eats must be handled cautiously, doctors say.
Families and doctors need to be very careful with any form of intermittent fasting in youth as it can be a slippery slope with a potential risk of eating disorders, says
Jason Nagata,
a pediatrician and eating-disorder specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. Doctors have also raised questions about the potential long-term effects of intermittent fasting on developing bodies.
Courtney Peterson,
an associate professor of nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who studies intermittent fasting in adults, says she would be worried about adolescents’ getting enough nutrients. “I think it’s worth testing but testing with caution,” she says.
Her research has found that adults with obesity who ate between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. lost on average an extra 5 pounds more than a control group eating over 12 hours or more, and adults with prediabetes who ate over a six-hour period starting early in the day showed improvements in blood-sugar levels.
Intermittent fasting is an umbrella term for eating strategies that involve fasting. One such strategy, time-restricted eating, or TRE, limits eating to a set number of hours a day—often eight—with no limitations on what or how much you eat. In the remaining hours, you refrain from eating or drinking except for water.
Alaina Vidmar,
a pediatric endocrinologist and obesity-medicine specialist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, is starting a clinical trial to evaluate whether an eight-hour window of eating, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., results in changes in insulin and glucose response for teens with obesity.
The researchers are also looking at weight loss and body-fat mass, as well as blood pressure and cholesterol.
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The research stems from conversations Dr. Vidmar had with families of patients with obesity in recent years. Some had asked her about time-restricted eating, or had tried it and said they liked it. She tested the concept in teenagers with obesity to see if setting an eight-hour window of eating was feasible in a pilot study published in the journal Nutrients in 2021.
“They enjoyed doing it, they felt like their whole family could do it, and over time they were losing weight,” Dr. Vidmar says of the teens.
Now, her lab is enrolling 100 youth between 12 and 21 years old with Type 2 diabetes and obesity in a 12-week trial. Participants are screened and monitored for any negative eating behaviors, she says. So far, she hasn’t found that time-limited eating “impacts eating behaviors or worsens disordered eating in any way,” she says.
In Australia, researchers are studying how teens with obesity respond to a different form of fasting called intermittent energy restriction.
In this approach, for three days a week you eat roughly one-quarter of the calories you normally do, says
Natalie Lister,
a researcher and dietitian at the University of Sydney. On the other four days, you have no calorie limits.
Dr. Lister says she and colleagues started looking into intermittent fasting in adolescents with obesity a few years ago when patients started asking about it. They conducted a pilot trial with 30 adolescents, published in 2019. Now, the researchers are completing a trial whose results they expect to publish later this year.
The health team monitors for eating disorders and depression, and the study doesn’t enroll anyone with a high risk of disordered eating, says Dr. Lister. Dietitians provide guidelines to help ensure participants are meeting nutritional requirements.
In adults with obesity, the data on TRE is mixed when it comes to weight loss, but two systematic reviews of the existing research both found a modest weight-loss benefit overall, says Dr. Peterson. Studies have also found that adults experience improvements in measures such as insulin resistance, reducing blood-glucose levels, particularly when their eating window starts early in the day.
Matthew Muros, a 15-year-old in Carson, Calif., struggles with his weight and prediabetes. Matthew participated in Dr. Vidmar’s pilot studies last year. The first two weeks were challenging, he notes.
“I did feel really hungry. I just kept on drinking water,” he says.
He says it got easier, and when the study was over he decided to stick with the schedule. He has lost about 30 pounds, and his blood-glucose levels have improved.
He has also changed his diet, having less soda, fast food and carbohydrates. “I’m trying to eat a little bit more healthy,” he says.
Write to Sumathi Reddy at Sumathi.Reddy@wsj.com
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Evidence of Horizontal Gene Transfer Between Human Maternal Microbiome and Infant Gut Microbiome
Summary: A new model of vertical microbiome transmission between mother and child has been reported. Researchers say microbes in the maternal gut share genes with those in the infant’s gut during the perinatal period directly following birth up to a few weeks postbirth.
Source: Cell Press
Researchers have discovered a new mode of vertical mother-to-infant microbiome transmission, where microbes in the maternal gut shared genes with microbes in the infant gut during the perinatal period starting immediately before birth and extending thought the first few weeks after birth.
This horizontal gene transfer allowed maternal microbial strains to influence the functional capacity of the infant microbiome, in the absence of persistent transmission of the microbial strains themselves.
Such a large-scale integrative analysis, presented December 22 in the journal Cell, provides a series of high-resolution snapshots of gut colonization dynamics that influence infant development both before and after birth.
“This is the first study to describe the transfer of mobile genetic elements between maternal and infant microbiomes,” says senior study author Ramnik Xavier of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
“Our study also, for the first time, integrated gut microbiome and metabolomic profiles from both mothers and infants and discovered links between gut metabolites, bacteria and breastmilk substrates. This investigation represents a unique perspective into the co-development of infant gut microbiomes and metabolomes under the influence of known maternal and dietary factors.”
Gut bacteria promote the maturation of the immune system in part through the production of microbial metabolites. The development of the infant gut microbiome follows predictable patterns, starting with transmission of microbes from the mother at birth. In addition to immune system maturation, microbial metabolites also influence early cognitive development.
The perinatal period represents a critical window for cognitive and immune system development, promoted by maternal and infant gut microbiota and their metabolites. Nevertheless, the co-development of microbiomes and metabolomes during the perinatal period and the determinants of this process are not well understood.
To address this knowledge gap, Xavier and his colleagues tracked the co-development of microbiomes and metabolomes from late pregnancy to one year of age using longitudinal multi-omics data from a cohort of 70 mother-infant dyads. They discovered large-scale mother-to-infant interspecies transfer of mobile genetic elements, frequently involving genes associated with diet-related adaptations.
Infant gut metabolomes were less diverse than maternal metabolomes but featured hundreds of unique metabolites and microbe-metabolite associations not detected in mothers. Metabolomes and serum cytokine signatures of infants who received regular, but not extensively hydrolyzed, formula were distinct from those of exclusively breastfed infants.
“The infant gut harbored thousands of unique metabolites, many of which were likely modified from breastmilk substrates by gut bacteria,” says Tommi Vatanen, co-first author on the study along with Karolina Jabbar, both of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. “Many of these metabolites likely impact immune system and cognitive development.”
Pregnancy was associated with an increase in steroid compounds, including gonadal hormone derivatives and intermediates of bile acid biosynthesis, several of which were independently linked to impaired glucose tolerance. Although infant gut metabolomes were less diverse than maternal metabolomes, the researchers detected more than 2,500 infant-unique metabolomic features.
Moreover, they identified numerous infant-specific associations of bacterial species and fecal metabolites, including neurotransmitters and immune modulators.
“We were surprised to find that maternal gut bacteria that were rarely observed in infants contributed to the infant gut microbiome structure,” says Xavier. “We also found evidence that prophages—dormant bacteriophages, or viruses that reside on bacterial genomes—contribute to the exchange of mobile genetic elements between maternal and infant microbiomes.”
The authors say that the maternal microbiome may shape the infant gut microbiome through horizontal gene transfer, apart from classical vertical transmission of strains and species. Moreover, the identification of distinctive metabolomic profiles and microbe–metabolite interactions in the infant gut constitutes a platform for further study of microbial contributions to infant development.
One study limitation was that the researchers did not consider changes in diet and lifestyle between pregnancy and the postpartum period, which may have affected microbiome and metabolome alterations. In future studies, they plan to further explore linkages between bacteria and metabolites and investigate strain-specific bacterial metabolic output using isolated bacteria in vitro.
“Taken together, our integrative analysis expands the concept of vertical transmission of the gut microbiome and provides new insights into the development of maternal and infant microbiomes and metabolomes during late pregnancy and early life,” Xavier says.
About this microbiome research news
Author: Press Office
Source: Cell Press
Contact: Press Office – Cell Press
Image: The image is in the public domain
See also
Original Research: Open access.
“Mobile genetic elements from the maternal microbiome shape infant gut microbial assembly and metabolism” by Ramnik J. Xavier et al. Cell
Abstract
Mobile genetic elements from the maternal microbiome shape infant gut microbial assembly and metabolism
Highlights
- Mobile genetic elements from maternal bacteria shape offspring gut microbiomes
- Microbiome and metabolome shifts in pregnancy may impact maternal metabolic health
- The infant gut harbors unique metabolites and species-metabolite relationships
- Diet modulates metabolomic profiles and immune system maturation in infants
Summary
The perinatal period represents a critical window for cognitive and immune system development, promoted by maternal and infant gut microbiomes and their metabolites.
Here, we tracked the co-development of microbiomes and metabolomes from late pregnancy to 1 year of age using longitudinal multi-omics data from a cohort of 70 mother-infant dyads.
We discovered large-scale mother-to-infant interspecies transfer of mobile genetic elements, frequently involving genes associated with diet-related adaptations. Infant gut metabolomes were less diverse than maternal but featured hundreds of unique metabolites and microbe-metabolite associations not detected in mothers.
Metabolomes and serum cytokine signatures of infants who received regular—but not extensively hydrolyzed—formula were distinct from those of exclusively breastfed infants.
Taken together, our integrative analysis expands the concept of vertical transmission of the gut microbiome and provides original insights into the development of maternal and infant microbiomes and metabolomes during late pregnancy and early life.
Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb’s son Cooper, infant granddaughter killed in Gilbert car crash
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — The 22-year-old man and baby who died in a crash in Gilbert Friday afternoon have been identified as Cooper Lamb, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb’s son, and his 1-year-old granddaughter.
Both were passengers in a car that was involved in a T-bone crash near the intersection of Elliot Road and Cole Drive around 3:45 p.m. on Friday. A woman driving a red Toyota Corolla with Lamb and the baby inside reportedly turned in front of a pickup truck driver who then slammed into the Corolla.
The woman was taken from the scene to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries. The pickup driver was uninjured and was going the speed limit, but he was arrested by Gilbert Police on suspicion that he had been driving under the influence.
Pinal County Sheriff’s Office extended their condolences to Sheriff Lamb and his family on Twitter with the following post:
The investigation is still underway, and there are no more updates available.
Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.
California mom speaks out after losing infant son to RSV complications
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. – A Southern California mother who lost her infant son to RSV is sharing her tragic story to warn other parents, as a surge of the dangerous virus is spreading rapidly throughout the country.
“He really was just the best baby and the sweetest little soul. We loved him. We love him so much,” says Jessica Myers through tears.
Myers lost her son William on Nov. 15. He was only 6 weeks old.
“The RSV treatments for him ended up being just too much. His little heart stopped, and it took them a long time to bring him back. When they did, my son was brain dead, and so we had a couple of days to say goodbye to him,” says Myers.
An intensive care nurse holds the foot of a patient suffering from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), who is being ventilated, in the pediatric intensive care unit of the Olgahospital of the Klinkum Stuttgart.
( Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images)
William Myers was only a few weeks old when he became sick with the virus. First, it was congestion and then a cough. The couple then took their baby to the crowded local hospital and say they had to wait six hours before William was tested for RSV.
GETTING PREGNANT SOON AFTER ABORTION OR MISCARRIAGE MIGHT HAVE LOWER RISKS THAN PREVIOUSLY SUSPECTED: STUDY
“When you get to the emergency room, request the RSV test immediately. It is a two-minute nasal swab and a five-minute test. I mean, they came back and the moment they knew that William had RSV, we were seeing a doctor within five minutes because they knew how serious it was at that point,” says Myers.
Once he tested positive for RSV, William was airlifted to another hospital and intubated. He died just three days later.
“And that’s how serious people need to take this, is that when we finally got to the emergency room and they called around to hospitals in Southern California to find space for my son, there were so many hospitals that they called that just did not have a room,” says Myers.
This transmission electron micrograph reveals the morphologic traits of the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), 1981.
(Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
“My son was born Oct. 3, a little early. Then, my son officially passed away on the 15th of November, which was his due date. So, my son left the world the day he was supposed to enter it. That really, really hurts,” says Myers.
7 DIE FROM THE FLU IN WASHINGTON AMID INTENSE FLU SEASON
Now, Myers is warning other parents that this illness is very serious and encouraging families to take extra precaution this holiday season.
“I know it’s tough to say no to your family, especially around the holidays. But, for my family, there will never be a Christmas. So, for other families, I really want them to have other Christmases. There will be other Christmases. Just keep your kids safe,” says Myers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S, on Saturday, March 14, 2020
(Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Just in the last month, cases of RSV exploded across the country. One bit of good news, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows cases nationally are dropping, but are still at concerning levels.
The surge in RSV, flu and COVID cases is fueling a pediatric bed shortage.
Many hospitals say they don’t have enough resources to handle the influx. Just over the last month, health care facilities in California, Oregon and Massachusetts have added overflow facilities, even building tents outside emergency rooms. Some have had to delay elective surgeries due to the surge.
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Doctors say a runny nose, coughing, sneezing, and a fever are the main warning signs. But, little William did not have a fever, so it varies.
As we enter winter, doctors say prepare for a Tripledemic, with cases of RSV, flu and COVID peaking in January.
RSV Hospitalizations Surge, Babies Hit Hardest
High rates of hospitalization with RSV are hitting the youngest children especially hard, part of an unseasonably early surge in respiratory infections.
Some 3.0 people for every 100,000 were hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus the week ended Nov. 5, according to federal data from 12 states. The rate is the highest since the winter just before the pandemic, when some 2.7 people per 100,000 were hospitalized in January 2020. The hospitalization rate declined from 3.4 hospitalizations per 100,000 in the week ended Oct. 29.
Babies under six months old have the highest RSV-related hospitalization rate, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show, at 145 hospitalizations per 100,000 infants. Infants six to 12 months old were hospitalized at a rate of 63 for every 100,000 children that age. For adults, the hospitalization rate is 0.6 per 100,000 people.
RSV is a common virus that most children encounter by their second birthday. Reinfections can occur at any age. Most people experience mild, cold-like symptoms and recover in a week or two. But RSV can be serious for some infants and older adults, causing bronchitis and pneumonia.
Younger children tend to be at higher risk, in part because their airways are smaller and get more easily clogged when they are inflamed, said Dana Free, a travel nurse with a company called Trustaff, working in a pediatric intensive-care unit in Danville, Pa.
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“If you think of it as a straw, and that’s your normal breathing, that’s fine,” Ms. Free said. “You coat it in congestion, essentially snot and mucus, you’re making that airway much smaller.”
Emergency rooms and pediatric hospitals across the U.S. have reported strain due to increased cases of RSV and other common respiratory viruses. Some recent closures of pediatric units have compounded the issue, doctors said, and staff are stretched thin.
Some hospitals in the Northeast are postponing elective surgeries or sending older children to adult hospitals, said Connecticut Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani. Those strategies aren’t as effective for pediatric care because fewer children have elective surgeries than adults and hospitalization rates among older children are lower, she said.
Children’s Hospital New Orleans is getting calls from doctors in Mississippi, Alabama and Texas looking for beds for patients, said pediatric infectious disease specialist Mark Kline. “You’re talking about kids who have critical illness because they’re in respiratory failure,” Dr. Kline said. “They’re not occasional calls. It’s every day.”
Schools in states including Kentucky and Ohio temporarily suspended classes or switched to remote learning at least one day this week because students and staff were out sick.
RSV usually spreads from the fall through winter, peaking sometime between late December and mid-February. But with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, RSV cases practically disappeared, likely because of Covid-19 mitigation measures including masking that appear to have restricted the spread of a range of viruses.
RSV came back in the summer of 2021, unusual for that time of year, eventually reaching a hospitalization rate of 1.3 per 100,000 people in mid-December. The virus continued circulating this year throughout the spring and summer and surged in recent weeks.
“RSV has done something similar in the previous two seasons where it started early, but nothing to this extent and nothing as widespread as now,” said William Schaffner, medical director at the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Many younger infants might not have been exposed to RSV, in part because of Covid-19 mitigation efforts that kept other viruses in check, doctors said. Mitigation measures have largely been dropped at places including schools and daycare centers, and the relative lack of exposure compared with prior seasons created a wider pool of susceptible people, some public-health experts said.
“This increased number of cases is to be expected, given the number of individuals that are susceptible to the virus at this time,” José Romero, director for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, said last week. There aren’t any indications at this time that the cases are more severe, Dr. Romero said.
There aren’t any specific RSV treatments, but some over-the-counter medications can help manage pain and fever, and patients should stay hydrated, doctors said. Most adults and infants without other health conditions don’t need to be hospitalized, the CDC said.
People should seek medical attention if they have trouble breathing, aren’t drinking enough fluids or have worsening symptoms, the CDC said. Some might need additional oxygen, fluids or a breathing tube. Hospitalization tends to last a few days.
Among children under the age of 5, an estimated 100 to 300 RSV-related deaths occur each year in the U.S. while some 6,000 to 10,000 deaths occur among adults 65 and older, according to the CDC. The RSV-hospitalization rate for people 65 and older is per 100,000 people, according to CDC data.
The CDC said it doesn’t have real-time death data because RSV reporting isn’t mandatory.
Areas including the Southeast and South-Central parts of the U.S. last week recorded declines in the proportion of tests positive for RSV, Dr. Romero said. In Connecticut, children’s hospitals reported a stable or slightly lower number of children admitted to the hospital compared with the week prior, the state health department’s Dr. Juthani said.
“I’m hoping that we’ve somewhat plateaued in the Connecticut area,” Dr. Juthani said. “The downside is that flu is taking off.”
Doctors and health officials said they are watching how flu and Covid-19 might collide with RSV trends this winter.
“We likely have not peaked,” said Amanda Castel, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Write to Brianna Abbott at brianna.abbott@wsj.com
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