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Source: https://www.gmtoday.com/news/illino...cle_97999864-32b5-11ed-9225-77a9cf5d128a.html
Illinois children’s hospitals are coping with a surge of kids with respiratory illnesses, filling beds
NS 7 hrs ago
CHICAGO — Illinois children’s hospitals are seeing a surge of kids with respiratory illnesses, leaving some hunting for beds.
“It’s skyrocketed since school started,” said Dr. John Cunningham, physician-in-chief at University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital, of the number of families seeking care at Comer. “This is the most challenging period we’ve experienced since March 2020.”
It’s not unusual for children’s hospitals to see surges of sick kids each winter, as illnesses such as the flu and RSV, respiratory syncytial virus, spread. But it’s rarer to get a big influx of children with respiratory illnesses in August and September, and, at some hospitals, it’s posing a particular challenge this year because of staffing shortages.
Many of the kids have enterovirus, which can be an upper respiratory or gastrointestinal infection, or rhinovirus, which is a type of enterovirus that affects the upper respiratory tract, Cunningham said. Most children who catch the illnesses don’t get very sick and recover at home, experiencing cold-like symptoms. But some, including children with asthma, can become short of breath and have low oxygen levels, requiring hospitalization.
Illinois children’s hospitals are coping with a surge of kids with respiratory illnesses, filling beds
NS 7 hrs ago
CHICAGO — Illinois children’s hospitals are seeing a surge of kids with respiratory illnesses, leaving some hunting for beds.
“It’s skyrocketed since school started,” said Dr. John Cunningham, physician-in-chief at University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital, of the number of families seeking care at Comer. “This is the most challenging period we’ve experienced since March 2020.”
It’s not unusual for children’s hospitals to see surges of sick kids each winter, as illnesses such as the flu and RSV, respiratory syncytial virus, spread. But it’s rarer to get a big influx of children with respiratory illnesses in August and September, and, at some hospitals, it’s posing a particular challenge this year because of staffing shortages.
Many of the kids have enterovirus, which can be an upper respiratory or gastrointestinal infection, or rhinovirus, which is a type of enterovirus that affects the upper respiratory tract, Cunningham said. Most children who catch the illnesses don’t get very sick and recover at home, experiencing cold-like symptoms. But some, including children with asthma, can become short of breath and have low oxygen levels, requiring hospitalization.