UNMH, other Abq hospitals see influx of young patients; here’s why

Local hospital officials say they are operating above capacity because of an influx of young children getting sick with different viruses, including the Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV.

It’s common for hospitals to see an increase in people sick with respiratory viruses in the winter, but this year’s surge started months earlier than normal, raising alarm about patient volumes at local hospitals this winter. At the University of New Mexico, the children’s hospital was at 119% capacity on Monday morning, said Maribeth Thornton, the associate chief nursing officer.

Physicians at UNMH, Presbyterian Healthcare Services and the Lovelace Health System held a news conference Monday morning to warn parents of the trend.

Part of the reason for the increase is because many young children today haven’t been exposed to viruses as much as in past years because of the COVID-19-related restrictions they grew up in.

“I think that there is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic, and the restrictions that we had in place, are playing a role in what we’re seeing right now,” said Dr. John Pederson, the medical director of children’s care at Presbyterian. “The masking, the social distancing, the hand hygiene, all of the things that were in place during the COVID 19 pandemic did a good job of limiting the spread of COVID 19, but also RSV and influenza. So absolutely, we are seeing children that typically would have been exposed to these viruses in the past … And so we do kind of have this immunity gap in the community.”

As during previous COVID surges, local hospitals have taken steps to create more space to treat patients. The difference between the last two winters and now is that the current patients are young, while during COVID many were older.

Many of the patients during the latest surge are less than a year old. But local 5-year-olds have needed additional oxygen to battle respiratory viruses.

Dr. Vesta Sandoval, the medical director at Lovelace, urged parents to teach their children to wash their hands, consider wearing a mask in public spaces and stay up-to-date on vaccinations. The physicians also advised parents not to go to work when they are sick and to keep sick children home from school or daycare.

The doctors said parents should take their children to primary care doctors or the urgent care if their children have a fever for three days and appear to be getting dehydrated. If the children are having difficultly breathing and are clearly dehydrated they should go to an emergency room.