CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Respiratory illnesses are on the rise in the Chicago-area and that includes an alarming number of Respiratory Syncytial Virus cases in children.
"It’s an unprecedented surge that we’ve never really seen before," said Dr. Mike Cappello with Advocate Children's Hospital.
He said the surge could be due in part to the easing of pandemic precautions--including masks wearing and thorough hand washing, which is allowing germs to spread more easily.
"We have so many patients that were not exposed to anything really for a while and now they’re kind of all getting hit at once whereas ordinarily they’d be getting it slowly over a couple years."
Cappello said infants are most at risk for RSV.
"For an older patient, it kind of just causes a cold, runny nose, etc., but the smaller patients have tinier airways, and the mucus that forms in there can get in there cause difficulty breathing."
The CDC estimates 58,000 children younger than 5 are hospitalized for RSV each year in the U.S. Cappello fears this year could be worse.
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