With Covid-like Symptoms, New Illness Gains Pace in US. This One Hits Children, Older Adults

Amid the scare over next Covid-19 wave hitting children, a highly contagious seasonal flulike illness is gaining pace in the United States. The affected range between the age group of 2 weeks and 17 years. The US health officials have expressed concern over a simultaneous rise in Delta cases and the new infection that is said to hit the children and older adults more.

India has been trying to begin vaccination for children as soon as possible. Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said at the meeting of the BJP’s parliamentary party that Centre would likely start giving anti-Covid shots to children next month, some reports stated.

The move, experts say, will be a giant step in breaking the chain of transmission and also reopening schools across the country. Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s candidate are testing vaccines for children.

As the world struggles to contain the coronavirus, cases of respiratory syncytial virus or RSV in America has caused another worry.

Cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have risen gradually since early June, with an even greater spike in the past month, a report in New York Times quoted the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The illness, which can cause symptoms that include a runny nose, coughing, sneezing and fever, normally begins to spread in the fall, making this summer spike unusual.

In a series of posts on Twitter, Dr. Heather Haq, a pediatrician at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, described an increase in both coronavirus and RSV hospitalizations.

“After many months of zero or few pediatric Covid cases, we are seeing infants, children and teens with Covid pouring back into the hospital, more and more each day,” she wrote, adding that patients have ranged in age from 2 weeks to 17 years old, including some with Covid pneumonias.

“We are on the front end of a huge Covid surge,” wrote Dr. Haq, who could not be reached for comment on Sunday. “We are now having winter-level patient volumes of acutely ill infants/toddlers with RSV, and I worry that we will run out of beds and staff to handle the surge upon surge.”

RSV cases in Texas began to increase in early June and appeared to peak in mid-July, according to data from the state’s health department.

There has been a similar spike in Florida, where infections “were above those seen at this time in past years,” according to a surveillance report.

In Louisiana, where cases have jumped 244 percent in the past two weeks, Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge was nearing its capacity on Friday, CNN reported.

“You start with the pandemic for the last 18 months, and then R.S.V. for the last couple of months,” Dr. Trey Dunbar, the hospital’s president, told the network. “It just seems to be one thing after another that’s keeping our teams very busy.”

In Oklahoma, which has also had a spike in R.S.V. cases, beds are becoming scarce at hospitals.

Dr. Cameron Mantor, the chief medical officer for Oklahoma Children’s Hospital at OU Health, told The Oklahoman that in the past two months R.S.V. cases in the state had been “exponentially off the charts.”

“R.S.V. is a real issue right now,” he told the newspaper. “What is going to happen if we do have a surge in pediatric Covid cases?”

The rise comes as new coronavirus infections have risen 148 percent in the United States in the past two weeks and hospitalizations have increased 73 percent, according to New York Times data. The surge of coronavirus infections has been largely attributed to the highly contagious Delta variant and to low vaccination rates in some states.

“I worry as kids go back to school with the Delta circulating, we will see huge school outbreaks that we didn’t see in prior waves, disproportionately affecting kids,” Dr. Haq wrote. “I’ve cared for hospitalized pediatric patients with Covid throughout the pandemic, but this time with unvaccinated, susceptible children plus Delta variant, we will see more pediatric Covid admissions.”

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has prohibited local governments and state agencies from mandating Covid vaccines and barred local officials from requiring face masks.

Florida could face similar challenges with viruses when the school year begins. Gov. Ron DeSantis has spoken out against new masking recommendations from the C.D.C., with his office saying in a statement last week that “parents know what’s best for their children.”

Surges in R.S.V. infections have also been reported in places like New Zealand, where it is currently winter. Experts there say that children may be more vulnerable than usual to seasonal viruses and infections because they were underexposed to germs during lockdowns early in the pandemic.

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