Tampa Bay area sees significant rise in RSV cases, CDC says

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are on the rise in the Tampa Bay area. The higher number of cases has resulted in an increased number of hospitalizations, compared to previous years at this time, the CDC said. 

"I’m concerned that we may start to see that kind of spiking activity in the next several weeks," Dr. Juan Dumois, a pediatric and infectious diseases physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, said.

Dumois said they’ve seen a slight rise in RSV cases over the past few weeks compared to this time in previous years. He said he thinks they’ll see cases rise even more, though, because of trends across the state and across the country.

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"I think that over the next month we are going to start seeing more sick kids coming in," he said. "We will probably be diagnosing more children with flu and RSV, and so because we’re anticipating that, I think one of the most important things I want to say is to encourage families to get their kids vaccinated against flu," Dumois said.

He said if you have children under six months old, everyone around them should get the flu shot too.

"Children as young as six months of age can get the flu vaccine and even though they can still catch the flu, if they’ve been vaccinated, they are far less likely to end up in the hospital with it," Dumois said.

According to Dumois, RSV cases usually rise in October. This year, though, cases started rising during the summer and have continued to rise, he said.

"I think there may be a couple of reasons why we saw so much RSV in the summer when we normally don’t see that at all. One would be a lot of people generally feeling like things are back to normal, that there’s no need for precautions related to COVID-19, and so they become more comfortable around other people and it becomes easier to spread viruses like RSV," he said.

"Another factor may be that, because the RSV seasons have been so mild the last couple of years, during the pandemic, people don’t have as much immunity as they did when they caught RSV every year or two," Dumois said.

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He said since there’s so many sicknesses going around, symptoms of RSV, the flu, COVID and other illnesses can be almost identical. Regardless of the illness, it’s important to know when you should take your child to the hospital, he said.

"If your child is acting sick enough that you are uncomfortable, that is enough to warrant a call to the pediatrician’s office or to take them to an urgent care center. If your child is a little sicker than that, let’s say they’re starting to turn blue around the lips or you’re seeing any grayish or blue discoloration of the skin, that can be a sign of a low oxygen level. Your child should go to the emergency center," Dumois said.

"If your child is lethargic, they’re not urinating as much because they’re starting to get dehydrated because they haven’t been drinking much, that warrants at least a call to the pediatrician and if they’re not even responding to you, well that’s more urgent and that would warrant a visit to the emergency room," he said.

Dumois said RSV is very treatable. About one percent of children who get the virus end up in the hospital, he said. According to the CDC, Florida is one of more than 30 states across the country that have reported a rise in the respiratory virus RSV. 

The CDC said RSV accounts for 58,000 annual hospitalizations, and 100 to 300 deaths among children under five each year in the United States. 

A spokesperson for St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital said they’ve seen a spike in respiratory cases, including RSV, lately. Tampa General Hospital is looking into its numbers and getting back to Fox 13.