NBC新闻:美国RSV感染患者激增

Tonight doctors on alert as hospitals around the country report a dramatic increase of RSV, a respiratory virus, especially serious in babies and older adults. It's not just that we're seeing more RSV this year but the cases that we're seeing are more severe and have more complications. This is Kiera. Nine month old Kiera has been in New York's Maimonides Medical Center for more than two weeks. Yeah that has to be scary. Yeah it was pretty scary. People talk about the flu so much but we didn't hear about RSV as much and so now I know and you know it's like a big thing. 

The symptoms are similar to a cold or flu. Congestion, decreased appetite and fever. But doctors say the key difference is that RSV patients have trouble breathing. There's also a risk of developing more severe infections like pneumonia. There is a lot of complications that can happen. Children can even die from this disease. The spike in this virus striking at the same time as flu season. The CDC estimates that more than 6 million people have already been sick with the flu. 27 children have died. The best advice for prevention: avoid large crowds, wash hands and kids toys and stay home when you're sick.