Kids testing positive for RSV at one Indiana hospital more than triple this year compared to last
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Indiana hospitals are battling a surge in RSV infections with doctors calling the numbers staggering.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the jump in Indiana occurred in just the past five weeks.
News 8 spoke with Dr. John Christenson, associate medical director of infection prevention at Riley Children’s Health, who described the situation at Riley Hospital for Children.
“In the hospital we, for the last three or four weeks, have been experiencing a surge in respiratory viral activity,” he said. “We’ve had RSV show up early again this year just like last year so we are seeing a lot of infants. Many of them are requiring a hospital stay because of oxygen needs.”
Christenson says Riley Hospital for Children is busy with roughly 40% of patients coming to the emergency room because of RSV. The hospital also shared the number of cases of RSV they’ve seen this year compared to last.
In September 2021 there were 51 confirmed RSV infections. This year there were 97. The number for October has more than tripled this year compared to last with 33 in 2021 and 113 patients testing positive so far this month.
These numbers reflect the number of children who came to Riley because of an illness. They were viral tested and the test came back positive RSV.