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WILKES-BARRE — Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre and Geisinger-Community Medical Center in Scranton have issued restrictions temporarily prohibiting children under the age of five from visiting children’s and women’s inpatient units due to seasonal increase in pediatric Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) cases.
Dr. Michael Ryan, chairman of Geisinger’s Janet Weis Children’s Hospital said the restriction is an annual practice and serves as a protective measure.
RSV is a respiratory virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages. While most healthy people recover from RSV infection, it can be severe in infants. Winter is an especially harsh time for this illness. In the United States, RSV infections generally occur from November to April.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis (inflammation of the small airways in the lung) and pneumonia in children under 1 year of age. Almost all children will have had an RSV infection by their second birthday.
When infants and children are exposed to RSV for the first time, 25 to 40 out of 100 have signs or symptoms of bronchiolitis or pneumonia, and five to 20 out of 1,000 will require hospitalization. Most children hospitalized for RSV infection are younger than 6 months of age.
RSV illness develops four to six days after exposure, typically with a runny nose and decrease in appetite. Coughing, sneezing and fever can follow one to three days later, and wheezing may also occur. In very young infants, irritability, decreased activity and breathing difficulties may be the only symptoms of infection.