What Is RSV and What Causes It and How Do You Get Rid of It. and Is It Fatal?
Sunday, July 25th, 2010 at
5:20 am
anonymous asked:
Recently someone i know got RSV in their right lung and they already have cystic fibrosis. He is only 8 months old.
And also now his brother got RSV. He is about 1 year or 2 old.
The first one is already at Akron Childrens Hospital. He was lifeflighted there and his brother will soon have to be taken to the ER.
Can you fill me in on what is happening with RSV?
Tagged with: Brother • Childrens Hospital • Cystic Fibrosis
Filed under: Cystic Fibrosis
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RSV or respiratory syncytial virus is not your everyday virus. It can be fatal, especially with children. The CDC link has all the information you will probably ever want to know. Hope all turns out well.
RSV stands for respiratory syncitial virus. It’s basically a virus that causes a really bad cold. Well, that’s what it would cause if you or I were to get it. In people with compromised lung function (most notably premature infants) it can be deadly. Their lungs are not yet mature, and so they can’t fight the virus. It causes them to not be able to get enough oxygen while they breath and can cause them to go into respiratory arrest. The fact that the eight month old has CF, well that makes things complicated for him. His lung function is already impaired, so he may have a tough time getting through this. My daughter had it when she was 4 months old, and she O2 sat. dropped to 88 (96-100 is norm.) She had to have breathing treatments every two hours and she developed pneumonia as well. She was also taking prednisone (a steroid) to help decrease the inflammation in her lungs. It was really scary, but Rainbow Babies and Children (I know you know where that’s at), took really good care of her. On top of having to stay in the hospital with her, I got sick with it as well and it was the worst cold I ever had in my life! If it can do that to a healthy adult, imagine the damage it can do to a small baby! At least he is in the hospital though. They will have him on a monitor that will alarm if his oxygen falls below a certain percent, and he will constantly have people checking in on him and he may or may not be on oxygen. Because he has CF they may put him on antibiotics too, even though RSV is caused by a virus. The antibiotics won’t cure the RSV, but will take care of any bacteria he may encounter while he has RSV. Children with CF are constant colonized with bacteria in their lungs, so they go in every so often for a “clean-out”. Once he’s put of the hospital, he may get a yearly injection of something calle Synegis (I think that’s the correct spelling) which will help prevent future RSV infections. They are pricey injections, but I think you can get assistance with them. Hope all this helped. I know it was a lot of information, if you have any further questions, just email me.