Think You Have the Flu? It Might Be RSV
It’s been a mild season for influenza in Los Angeles, but a highly contagious virus that usually strikes babies appears to have caused illness among an unusual number of adults this year, county health officials said Friday.
The virus, called respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, infected 40 of 100 patients at a Los Angeles-area nursing home several weeks ago, resulting in an 18% mortality rate, according to Dr. Shirley Fannin, deputy director of the Department of Health Services.
Because the symptoms fit those described by adults elsewhere in the county, RSV may have been the cause of more widespread illness, Fannin said. Influenza viruses have been ruled out as the cause of the nursing home cases, she added.
The symptoms include fever and one or more of the following: running nose, laryngitis, sore throat, chills, headache, malaise, and loss of appetite.
The chief difference between RSV infection and influenza, according to Fannin, is that RSV more often includes laryngitis and deep lung involvement, which ends up as pneumonia.
Dr. Joel Ward, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, said there has been an unusually large number of RSV cases among young children this year.
“Just because there is no flu doesn’t mean there are no respiratory infections,” Ward said.
A new drug called ribovirin recently was licensed by the Food and Drug Administration expressly for treating RSV.
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