As sick kids pour in, can hospitals cope?

CHICAGO -- At the Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, beds are filling up faster than they can be emptied.

"We have more patients than we've had in a while," nurse manager Maria Pasquale said. "And it's not stopping."

It's not stopping because of a rare form of the common cold -- that's anything but common, reports CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds. The virus, known as Enterovirus 68, primarily affects the respiratory track of young children like River Johnson, whose mother brought him to the emergency room on Sunday.

"It felt like someone was pressing on my chest," Johnson said.

Doctors warn that children with preexisting conditions like asthma are most at risk.

"In kids, their airways are still much smaller... a little bit of inflammation in there could really trigger a lot more trouble breathing," explained attending physician Zarina Dohadwala.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said hospitals in Kansas City and Chicago first reported spikes in the number of children with severe respiratory problems in August. Since then, Enterovirus clusters have cropped up in nearly a dozen states across the Midwest and South.

"Children attending school is probably part of the factor of why we see an increase at this time of year," said Dr. Mark Pallansch, director of CDC's division of viral diseases.

At Children's Hospital Colorado, where 447 kids visited the emergency department in just three days, doctors say resources are taxed but insist they're prepared for outbreaks like these.

"You go up, then it goes down. Then it goes away," Dr. Chris Nyquist said, "and we're ready for influenza when it starts sometime in this season."