RSV is back on the rise in babies — here’s what parents should know

Holiday gatherings are expected to cause a spike in respiratory syncy🧸tial virus infections across the country.

RSV is a h🥀ighly contagious and potentially deadly virus that can cause respiratory ♋disease. Symptoms include fever, worsening cough and restricted airways leading to trouble breathing.

Most people recover in a week, but as the last RSV season lasted longer and was more sever🌳e than usual, doctors are warning people to stay vigilant — especially those who care for infants and the immunocompromised.

Children under five years ol🎶d are being hospitaliz✱ed with respiratory illnesses at a higher rate than any other age group, and babies younger than six months old are at the highest risk, .

Every year the virus causes ab🎃out 58,000 to 80,000 hospitalizations and between 100 and 300 de🐭aths in children younger than five years old, the CDC reported.

has already reported a s🍸harp rise in cases in the last two weeks.

“RSV is a very common virus. Most children in the United States get infected by the time they’re two years of age,” Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Health, Dallas, and professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, on Thursday.

To prevent children from getting sick, people who are around babies should consider🔯 wearing a mask during or after traveling.

They should also wash thei𒆙r hands for at least 20 seౠconds before holding a baby.

Studies have also shown that breastfed babies are less likely to have complications of RSV as experts believe components in breast milk help boost a baby’s immune system.

However, the best precaution to take is to get🀅 preve꧑ntive shots.

“For the first time in decades, really, maybe since the virus was discovered, we have some very useful tools now to prevent RSV infection,” Kahn said.

There ar🏅e two protective shots available for babies, both of which contain antibodies, and two RSV vaccines avai𓂃lable for adults 60 and older.

Anoth🥂er vaccine recently received a formal endorsement from the CDC to be given during pregnancy to protect infants.

“If you’re an older person, or pregnant, you need to remember that vaccinating yourself could go a long way to protecting our youngest, most at risk,” Dr. Julia Arana, medical director of the hospitalists team and chief of staff at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, told ABC News.