Health warning — Virus affecting children spreading across the country

The Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and lower respiratory tract illness (LRTI) among young children, according to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD).

It is highly contagious, but infection with RSV does not result in permanent or long-term immunity and re-infection can occur.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the RSV season in South Africa usually preceded the influenza season with the usual average onset at the end of February (usually from early February to mid-March) over the last 10 years, according to the NICD.

However, since the start of the pandemic, with non-pharmaceutical interventions to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission in place, RSV circulation has been disrupted with fewer cases and out-of-season outbreaks reported.

In 2022 to date, RSV has been detected in 19% of children aged below five years and hospitalized with lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) at sentinel pneumonia surveillance sites, said the NICD.

The number testing positive for RSV among children below five years started to increase in February this year and continues to increase, with more children being hospitalized with LRTI at sentinel sites since the beginning of March.

There are treatments readily available to stem the disease. In the Waterberg region, many young patients tested positive and some had to be hospitalized in Pretoria for treatment.

Dr. Nicola Havemann, general practitioner from Bela-Bela, said that RSV has an incubation period of between four to six days.

She said the typical symptoms in young children include flu-like symptoms. Thus, the symptoms parents should be on the lookout for including a runny nose, fever, coughing, sneezing, wheezing, and a loss of appetite.

Very young babies may show signs like reduced feeding patterns, irritability, and difficulty breathing.

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