Hospital ERs seeing influx of young children with viral respiratory infections
HOLLYWOOD - There is an influx of young children going to the emergency room for viral respiratory infections.
"The ER has been busy," says Dr. Heidi Cohen, Medical Director of ER at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. "Right now, we are seeing RSV, we are seeing a mix of rhinovirus, flu, and croup."
Illnesses, she attributes to kids not being exposed to germs for years.
"I think they're a whole cohort of children that were covid babies, and not exposed to all these viral illnesses, and now they are all back in daycare, back in preschool and everyone is exposed again," says Dr. Cohen.
And because all these illnesses are viral, she says, they're nearly unavoidable.
Dr. Cohen says you should take your child to the ER, if:
-They are in distress
-Breathing fast
-Using extra muscles to breathe
-Pulling with the neck, chest or abdomen to breathe
