DALLAS — Christmas looked different for the Haro family, who spent part of their holiday week at the hospital after their 1-year-old daughter, Stella, was diagnosed with RSV.
“We haven’t been able to sleep, it’s not festive at all, we haven’t been able to rest,” said father Juan Haro.
RSV, or Respiratory Syncytial Virus, is a respiratory virus common among young children. Haro said after Stella got sick last week, his other daughter, Natalia, caught the infection too.
“She kept coughing, and my wife decided that it was better to take [Stella] to Cook’s Children. We just didn’t know what else to do, you know?” Haro said.
On Sunday, health experts at Children’s Health Hospitals in DFW sounded the alarm. Doctors said flu and RSV cases have soared in the last week. Four hundred sixty-nine Influenza A cases have been reported at Children’s hospitals, a nearly 70 percent increase from the week before. Five hundred seventy-four RSV cases have also been reported, along with 36 patients with COVID-19.