Long Beach : Respiratory Virus Among Children at Epidemic Stage

Pediatricians at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center are reporting a local epidemic of respiratory syncytial virus, a common cause of respiratory infections in infants and children. Although it is not unusual for the virus to reach epidemic proportions in the winter, doctors say, they are seeing it earlier and it is affecting more children this year than usual.

“The numbers are far outstripping anything we saw last year,” Harris R. Stutman, director of pediatric infectious diseases, said in a news release.

Affecting mostly children between the ages of 2 months and 2 years, the virus often results in sore throats or common colds. Occasionally, however, it can cause pneumonia or bronchial infection acute enough to require hospitalization.

During the first three weeks of December, according to Stutman, doctors at the hospital diagnosed 105 cases of the virus compared to only 14 cases in November and December of 1988. They are seeing as many as five new cases a day, he said.

Because the primary mode of transmission is from hand to hand, doctors are urging people with colds to wash their hands after touching their faces, especially if they are caring for an infant.

While most cases can be treated at home with fluids by keeping the body temperature down and nasal passages clear, Stutman said, a physician should be consulted if the child seems pale or has difficulty retaining fluids.