Cara Loverock
Northern News Services
Published Friday, December 21, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - With cold and flu season setting in, health officials are again warning parents of young children about respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes cold-like symptoms and swelling in the throat, nose and lungs, making it difficult to breath.

Nurse Jon Balmer with Stanton Territorial Hospital's pediatrics unit looks over a chart and makes some notes last January, when the unit was swamped with babies sick with a respiratory virus. - NNSL file photo

"Typically it arrives here after Christmas, after the big movement of people after Christmas break," said Dr. Andre Corriveau, chief medical officer with Health and Social Services. "It comes back to the North in early January and then it starts to spread in communities. There's good years and bad years with RSV but it comes every year."

For adults, RSV is not any more severe than the common cold, but for children under the age of two the illness can require hospitalization.

"Little infants have very tiny airways," said Corriveau. "The mucus plugs their airways and they can get into serious, even life-threatening problems of breathing."

Dr. Kami Kandola, a medical health officer with Stanton Territorial Health Authority, said RSV, when contracted by infants, puts them at a higher risk of developing bronchiolitis.

"Infants and children age one to two are at a higher risk for a syndrome called bronchiolitis and it's an inflammation of the smaller respiratory airways," said Kandola.

She said most children do not need hospitalization and the infection clears on its own.

Last January, Stanton Territorial Hospital's pediatrics unit was flooded with infants sick with RSV, largely coming from Nunavut.

Infants who are hospitalized for the illness may be placed in a humidified room and sometimes need to be put on a respirator.

"The winter season is a high-risk time for bronchiolitis because people are more indoors and it's more crowded so it's faster to spread the virus around," said Kandola, adding that RSV is highly contagious and spreads easily.

There has been one case so far this season in Nunavut.

Hand washing and keeping kids away from large crowds is recommended. Smoking indoors and around young children can make the illness worse, the smoke acting as an irritant. Breastfeeding infants may also help protect them against RSV.