Crisis in the United States as Children's Hospitals Are Overwhelmed by RSV Cases

Intensive care unit (ICU) nurse Hui-wen Sato did not mince any words when asked about the recent surge of RSV cases, telling Al-Jazeera that patients keep coming through their emergency department.

The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) spreads mainly through coughing or direct contact, and it usually causes mild symptoms but can be dangerous for older adults and young kids.

Children's hospitals across the United States see a surge of RSV cases, with the rise in patients severely straining their capacity. Like in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, some hospitals are now building overflow tents to house more beds for patients with RSV.

Hospitals also struggling with staffing shortages

Sato, who has worked as a pediatric nurse for a dozen years, said she has never seen such a high number of RSV cases. She added that this year feels "exceptionally overwhelming." She said that her ICU was already under pressure even before the surge due to staffing shortages.

Nurses working in the ICU can have a maximum of two patients. She said that while the unit physically contains 24 beds, they have had to limit the number of filled beds at times to just 20 because there are not enough medical staff.

Sato said that with the RSV surge, it had been a struggle to keep enough "wiggle room" for severe trauma patients coming through their emergency room. According to Sato, respiratory illness patients made up around 50 to 60 percent of those admitted in the past. That has changed this year, with Sato estimating they now make up about 70 percent.

Mental stress, illness, and low morale have pushed many healthcare workers to quit since the COVID pandemic started. Sato noted that there was a steady departure of nurses from their hospital, but they are hearing that it is also happening everywhere.

Biden administration should declare an emergency over the RSV surge

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and children's hospitals have called on the Biden administration to declare an emergency over RSV. The administration, however, still needs to do so, saying that public health emergencies are determined based on science trends, the insight of public health experts, and nationwide data, NBC News reported.

The United States' top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CBS in an interview that children's hospitals in some regions were being overwhelmed. He explained that when the pediatric associations and nurses say this is really critical, it is.

Experts have said that the rise of RSV this fall may be connected to the lack of contact among kids who were isolated during the COVID pandemic. Daniel Rauch, the chief of pediatric hospital medicine at Tufts Medicine, said preschoolers aged two to four are typically more resilient than infants to RSV. That has not been the case this year, with RSV making them sicker than usual.