Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City is “full to the brim” with young patients, according to Dr. Andrew Pavia, a pediatric infectious diseases expert with University of Utah Health and Primary Children’s.
Hospital administrators told the Salt Lake Tribune Monday that the Intermountain facility has been at or near capacity “for several consecutive days.”
The combination of RSV and influenza is “really stretching the ability to find hospital beds for patients, to find nurses to take care of them,” Pavia said in a recorded interview Friday with hospital spokesperson Jennifer Toomer-Cook.
RSV, or “respiratory syncytial” virus, is a common respiratory virus. It typically causes mild cold-like symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But in children younger than 1, RSV is the most common cause of pneumonia as well as bronchiolitis, or inflammation of the small airways.
The current “terrible triangle” of RSV, influenza and COVID-19 is “one more straw on this already overloaded camel’s back,” Pavia added. Local health officials warned of this potential “triple-demic” last month.