HEALTH Stubborn RSV is now causing most cold misery

RSV moves into your airways and lingers a long time there.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- If it seems as if half the people you know have been hacking and wheezing for weeks, it's not your imagination.
Although flu season is waning, other viruses are just hitting their stride. And one of them, RSV, is a prime suspect in the lingering crud that's laying so many so low.
RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, comes around every winter, putting small babies in the hospital and tormenting adults with sniffling, coughing and wheezing that seems to hang on forever. One of 150 to 200 viruses that cause the common cold, it has just reached its peak for the season.
The good news: These cold bugs are mostly mild-mannered, obnoxious but not dangerous to otherwise healthy people.
The bad: No one's found an effective treatment for any of them, let alone a cure or vaccine. Although your body can develop an immunity to any one virus, there are always plenty more lurking at school, in the office or in your toddler's heartfelt, snotty hug.
Serious problems
And for tiny babies -- especially those born prematurely or with chronic medical problems -- the RSV bug can be deadly. It sends 90,000 infants and children to the hospital each year and kills 4,500 of them, according to the American Lung Association.
"There's mounting evidence that it can be a real problem for seniors and people with chronic medical problems, like heart and lung problems," said Dr. Charles Weiss, a family practitioner.
Most people are exposed to RSV by the time they're toddlers. Doctors don't test every patient they see with symptoms -- just babies and others who may develop severe complications. But based on those tests, San Francisco-area doctors say this winter's bout with RSV appears to have reached a peak. And with so much of it around, they said, it's likely that the virus is also infecting many adults.
Moves into airways
"It's really a big deal, and I think people don't make as big a deal of it as they should," said Dr. Roger Baxter, an infectious disease specialist with Kaiser Permanente's regional laboratory in Oakland, Calif. Most colds affect the nose and the back of the throat, he said. But RSV moves in on the airways. "It just goes on and on forever, and in some people can produce almost asthma-like symptoms. They can wheeze and be short of breath."
Annette Goldberg, 31, an administrative assistant with Kaiser-Santa Clara hospital in California, knows what that feels like. She caught a cold in November that turned into a sinus infection. After three weeks of antibiotics for the infection, she still isn't right.
"I'll be fine one day and then I'll wake up and have this hacking cough for a few hours," she said. "It just comes and goes, but it's never completely gone."