CDC: Pediatric respiratory viruses happening earlier

Sep. 30—CUMBERLAND — Respiratory viruses that typically impact children in fall and winter started appearing months earlier this year across the U.S., according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report this week.

Studies showed an increase in emergency department visits by children and adolescents with acute respiratory illness and asthma/reactive airway disease this summer.

The percentage of positive test results for rhinoviruses and enteroviruses — a group of viruses that commonly cause respiratory illnesses such as the common cold, and the percentage of positive pediatric enterovirus-D68 test results also increased.

"Previous increases in EV-D68 respiratory illness have led to substantial resource demands in some hospitals," according to the CDC.

In the past, that scenario coincided with increases in cases of acute flaccid myelitis (2), a rare but serious neurologic disease affecting the spinal cord.

"Clinicians are advised to consider EV-D68 as a possible cause of severe respiratory illness in children and adolescents, particularly those with wheezing or who require respiratory support," according to the CDC report. "Health care facilities should be prepared for possible increases in pediatric health care use associated with severe EV-D68 — associated respiratory illness."

'It's happening earlier'

Across Maryland last year, respiratory syncytial virus was found in the summer.

"It's usually a fall/winter thing," Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems Executive Director Dr. Ted Delbridge said Friday.

MIEMSS uses the state's Critical Care Coordination Center, also known as C4, to identify available critical care hospital resources when patient transfers are needed, he said.

MIEMSS expanded C4 to include pediatrics last fall.

This year, C4 has been busier handling calls for reasons including enterovirus symptoms in pediatric patients lately than throughout spring and winter.

The center receives roughly 15 to 20 calls per day from hospitals that need guidance and or transfers for pediatric patients, Delbridge said.

"It is not following the seasonal pattern," he said of the viruses. "It's happening earlier."

The vast majority of children that get enterovirus develop symptoms like the common cold, Delbridge said.

As with COVID-19 or any contagious illness, children that are sick should stay home.

"Keep them out of the mainstream," Delbridge said.

Local health reports

Reports indicate pediatric cases of respiratory illness are increasing in much of the country.

"Children's hospitals across the U.S. are being inundated with patients sick with respiratory viruses," Becker's Hospital Review reported Wednesday.

However, local health officials so far are not reporting significant problems.

According to Kendra Thayer, vice president of clinical services and chief nursing officer at Garrett Regional Medical Center and Potomac Valley Hospital in Keyser, West Virginia, GRMC is not seeing an increase in pediatric respiratory cases, and PVH is seeing a slight uptick in such cases in the emergency department but not in admissions.

If a pediatric patient goes to UPMC Western Maryland's emergency department in need of intensive care, they would be transferred to UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, a hospital spokesman said.

"The Allegany County Health Department has not been made aware of any respiratory illness outbreak or resulting pediatric ICU bed shortage," Brenda Caldwell, ACHD public information coordinator, said via email Thursday.

"However, with winter comes cold and flu season, so this is a good time to remind county residents to do their part to keep themselves and others healthy by continuing to use common-sense precautions," she said.

"Washing your hands regularly, covering coughs and sneezes, wearing a mask in public indoor spaces, staying up-to-date on vaccinations, and staying home if you are feeling ill, except to seek medical care, are all effective strategies to help avoid COVID-19, the flu, and other contagious illnesses," Caldwell said.

Teresa McMinn is the Digital Editor for the Cumberland Times-News. She can be reached at 304-639-2371 or tmcminn@times-news.com.