Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is one of the leading causes of infant hospitalizations. Knowing the symptoms that indicate a worsening illness can help you take quick action and provide immediate care when needed.
At Express Emergency Room, Temple, TX, our expert healthcare team is equipped to provide state-of-the-art urgent treatment for RSV complications in children and adults.
Can RSV Be Life-Threatening?
RSV in adults and healthy children exhibit mild symptoms that mimic the common cold and resolve without needing any emergency care. However, severe infections in young children or immunocompromised adults can send them to an ER.
High-risk groups who can develop severe RSV infections needing emergency care include-
- Children below the age of 12 months
- Prematurely born infants
- People with heart or lung disease
- Older (above 65 years) adults
- Immunocompromised individuals
One of the life-threatening complications of severe RSV infections is pneumonia. If pneumonia occurs due to severe lower respiratory tract infection due to RSV, your lung’s alveoli (air-filled microscopic sacs) start filling with pus and fluid. It makes the exchange of gasses difficult, causing a lack of oxygen in the blood.
Our facility can help people who develop symptoms such as bronchitis and pneumonia due to severe RSV infections.
Therefore, it is crucial to know the signs indicating RSV infections may progress into pneumonia or bronchitis.
How To Know If RSV Is Turning Into Pneumonia?
Once the RSV infections spread into the lower respiratory tract, the risk of patients needing emergency pneumonia treatment, significantly increases. Hence, it is important to spot these signs that indicate such complications developing so the patient can receive emergency care.
Some of the signs of severe RSV infection include the following-
- High fever that is not responding to antipyretics
- Severe cough and difficulty in breathing
- Wheezing
- Short, rapid, and shallow breathing in infants
- Poor feeding and increased irritability in children
- Infants might need emergency RSV treatment if any of the above-mentioned symptoms occur.
How Is RSV Diagnosed?
In case of mild RSV infections, your doctor might not order a lab test to diagnose the infection. However, the doctor might order a confirmatory lab test if the patient falls under the high-risk group.
Additional testing is needed for severe RSV infections that require hospitalization in a 24-hour emergency room in Houston, TX. Our doctors at Express Emergency Room Temple, TX, might order a chest X-ray or a CT scan to check for lung abnormalities and to see the progression of pneumonia.
As pneumonia or bronchitis can be life-threatening complications of RSV infections, it is crucial to take your infant to an ER near you if the symptoms worsen. The faster the baby receives medical care, the lesser the chance of severe complications.
At Express Emergency Room, Temple, TX, you get the best emergency care round the clock in a friendly and positive environment. Visit or call us today to learn more about our services.
