Reference to Times of India. Hyderabad There is a rising concern among doctors who are increasingly diagnosing more children in the city with respiratory syncytial virus(RSV), a virus that is also a widespread infectious disease that can cause severe viral pneumonia. The recent years have witnessed a reported increase in severe cases of RSV in young children especially under five years old in hospitals.
RSV One of the Major Infants Killers.
RSV is a common respiratory infection all over the world and cause of infant mortality on a large scale, but there is not much awareness regarding this virus. As the World Pneumonia Day is held on November 12, the health specialists are insisting on conducting more effective prevention, timely treatment, and education of the population, in particular, the parents of children at risk.
According to Dr. Rishivardhan Reddy, paediatric consultant, Aster Prime Hospital, it is mostly children below the age of five, who are infected with RSV and the infection is greatest during monsoon and winter. He presents the fact that studies have always revealed RSV as a prominent cause of severe pneumonia in children and therefore early detection and awareness is necessary.
How RSV Affects the Lungs
According to Dr. E. Ravindra Reddy who is a pulmonologist at Kamineni Hospitals, the virus RSV attacks the small airways in the lungs causing such symptoms as a rapid breathing rate, coughing, fever, and lack of appetite. Babies below one year old, especially those born prematurely or with lung, heart or immune problems are at an increased risk.
Parents must also be observant of such red flags as chest retractions, wheezing, bluish lips or skin, and difficulty feeding as this could be a sign of an emergency medical situation that needs an urgent response.
Antibiotic abuse may be detrimental.
Due to the rapid spreading of the RSV, doctors emphasize the need to detect the symptoms as soon as they appear. Dr. Rishivardhan cautions that most of the parents mistake viral pneumonia and bacterial pneumonia. In the case of viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. Self-diagnosis with antibiotics will cause more harm than benefit, as he puts it. Rather, supportive care and symptom management are to be treated with supportive care and exposure to smoke should be avoided as it can aggravate infection.
The Most Wronged are Infants.
According to Dr. Ravindra, viral pneumonia can be hard to predict and most dangerous to children in the age group of below six months of age, premature kids, and those with heart and lung defects. RSV is a universal infection in children: almost every child will contract it before the age of two. He also adds that RSV causes bronchiolitis and pneumonia in infants.
Studies indicate a change in the pattern to Viral Pneumonia.
The recent research has revealed that there is a global trend towards a replacement of bacterial etiologies of pneumonia with viral ones, which makes accurate diagnosis extremely vital. In an article published in The Lancet, a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study reported the analysis of 10,000 cases of severe pneumonia, with 61 percent being found to be viral, and RSV being found to cause the most common infections, nearly one-third (31).
Primary Prevention of RSV and Viral Pneumonia.
Good hygiene, breastfeeding, proper ventilation, and avoiding tobacco smoke are suggested as good measures to minimize the risk of RSV. They also advise parents not to delay pediatricians once their child demonstrates respiratory distress, but instead use home treatment or self-medication.
The increase in the rates of RSV and viral pneumonia is a wake-up call that attention, awareness, and early treatment are the components that help make children healthy and avoid complications that are life-threatening.
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