Friday, Nov. 18, 2022 | 2 a.m.
A few days after bringing their newborn Aaliyah home from the hospital, Christa Lee and David Harris started to get concerned about the baby’s health.
Aaliyah started coughing, wheezing and experiencing apnea — a condition where babies stop breathing temporarily. She was rushed to St. Rose Dominican Hospitals-North Las Vegas, where she tested positive for respiratory syncytial virus, also known as RSV.
After being transferred to University Medical Center’s pediatric care unit, Aaliyah spent eight days on oxygen and feeding tubes while she recovered. She is home with her parents and three siblings once again, but the effects of the virus still linger for the baby and her mother.
Aaliyah is one of an estimated 58,000-80,000 children younger than 5 years hospitalized each year because of the RSV infection, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. One out of every 100 infants under 6 months who get the virus may need to be hospitalized, where they receive oxygen and are put on a breathing machine, the CDC said.
“The first three days that we were out from the hospital, I couldn’t really sleep because I had to make sure she was breathing,” Lee said. “It was kind of traumatizing afterwards.”
In Nevada, 1% of all RSV tests administered came back positive in October. That rate had risen to 10% as of Nov. 5, the CDC said. Around this time last year, positive RSV tests were sitting at roughly 3%.
Southern Nevada alone reported 150 cases of RSV in September, according to the Southern Nevada Health District.
Early symptoms include: Runny nose, decrease in appetite and cough, which may progress to wheezing or difficulty breathing, according to the CDC.
“I’ve heard of RSV, like my whole life, but it’s never been this bad because I feel like now everyone is getting it,” Lee said. “I have a bunch of friends who have babies and they’ve been hospitalized too. This is like really, it’s going around a lot this year.”
Officials at the Southern Nevada Health District said that “viruses are constantly changing,” which makes predicting their severity difficult, but Clark County has definitely seen “an increase in RSV cases during the month of October 2022 compared to previous years.”
Although RSV typically peaks during the winter and early spring, the virus began spreading much earlier and affecting children more severely, the health district said. Medical experts say this year’s rise in RSV, especially in children, could be a result of many areas dropping “COVID-19 mitigation measures such as mask wearing and social distancing.”
“Although almost all children are affected by 2 years of age, over the past few years we have experienced mild seasons for both flu and RSV,” said Dave Sheehan, the public information officer at the Southern Nevada Health District. “It is possible this upcoming season could be more active, as people have resumed much of their normal activities as these viruses circulate in the community.”
An estimated 100-150 children under age 5 die from RSV each year, the CDC said.
Lee suspects the baby picked up RSV after her siblings — Luca Lee, 8, Layla Loving, 8, and Kyla Harris, 2 — brought home the common cold.The other three children were sick but didn’t test for RSV, she said.
The CDC said the virus can spread through close contact or by touching infected people and surfaces.
Although the parents tried to reduce contact with Aaliyah to avoid spreading the virus to her, Christa Lee said it was an “inevitable” event.
“You know, how they say the first kid, you’re always more careful and then your second kid, you just really don’t care,” Christa Lee said. “... I feel like I’m back at that first (kid) with (thoughts) like, wash your hands, don’t kiss her hands or her face.”
For most people, RSV is akin to the common cold and can appear as fever, headaches, tiredness, and inflammation of the nose or throat. The virus is more severe for kids under 6 months old – especially premature or immunocompromised babies – and people over 65 years old, according to the CDC.
Irritability, poor feeding, and a temporary cessation of breathing are other common signs of RSV in children under 6 months while older adults may have a sore throat or cough.
The CDC said there were no vaccines to treat RSV and severe cases would need to be hospitalized, but most people can overcome the virus within a week or two.
Aaliyah, now 5 weeks old, returned home in late October. Lee said that Aaliyah still had a minor cough and sneezed frequently. “But she’s good now” and her oxygen levels are “great,” according to Christa Lee.
Lee decided to document part of Aaliyah’s experience on Tik Tok and Instagram, hoping to warn other parents and caregivers that “(RSV) is hitting hard for the little ones.”
“I feel like sometimes we are not aware of things unless it really happens to us, or we hear of it (and) we kind of just say, ‘Oh, we feel bad for that person,’” Christa Lee said. “Any sign that you might think it could be more than just a little allergy, then just go ahead and take it to the doctors and just get (it) checked out.”
