Kentucky hospitals seeing surge of RSV patients

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Hospitals across the country are seeing an increased number of r-s-v cases. RSV causes mild, cold-like symptoms but can be dangerous in some children, especially in infants.

“The thing with infants is they can’t communicate with you. They can’t tell you if they’re feeling bad if they’re short of breath so parents really have to be attuned to what they’re seeing from their kids,” said Chief Medical Officer of Baptist Health Lexington, Dr. Lee Dossett.

Doctors say parents should watch for cough, fever, and difficulty breathing.

“Parents really have to use their best judgment. They need to talk to their pediatrician, go to urgent treatment centers for evaluations or to the emergency room and they can do an evaluation and go from there,” said Dr. Dossett.

Dr. Lee Dossett says while they are seeing increased volumes of RSV cases at Baptist Health Lexington, they are still within their capacity.

“We’ve not had to make any major expansions or changes to accommodate that right now,” said Dr. Lee Dossett.

However, at Kentucky Children’s Hospital, they are at full capacity and have had to expand beds and staffing to accommodate the surge.

With 100% overall bed capacity, including surge beds, roughly 30% of their acute and intensive care beds are occupied by RSV patients.

The number of RSV cases they’re seeing has more than doubled from a month ago.

Kentucky Children’s Hospital says they’re admitting an average of 20 patients with RSV per day. They’ve also seen flu cases more than double in the past week.

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