Pressure on pediatric hospital beds prompts a call to families to protect themselves from respiratory illnesses.

If a child here in Monterey County get so sick with a respiratory illness that they need advanced care, they need to leave the county—there are no pediatric intensive care beds in Monterey County. They have to be sent up to the Bay Area to Stanford or UC San Francisco. Due to sharp increases in three illnesses—Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), influenza and Covid-19—those hospitals are filling up quickly.

That pediatric care beds could become unavailable to the sickest of children prompted all four hospitals in Monterey County and the county Health Department to issue a statement urging all residents to act now to protect themselves and their families during the holiday season.

In Monterey, a spokesperson for the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula reports that monthly emergency department visits for pediatric patients has doubled. There were 325 visits between Sept. 11 and Oct. 10, then 747 cases through Nov. 11.

The cases at CHOMP included a combination of RSV, flu or Covid. Some of those patients were hospitalized and some had to be transferred to pediatric intensive care units in the Bay Area.

At Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital in Salinas, they saw 560 pediatric respiratory visits to the emergency department and 50 pediatric respiratory admissions. That's nearly twice as many pediatric respiratory visits compared to October 2021, according to a spokesperson.

Natividad has also seen an increase in emergency department visits due to respiratory illnesses, that department's medical director, Christopher Burke, said in a written statement. "We are caring for the pediatric patients that are appropriate for our facility and transferring out the ones who are critical," he said.

Earlier this week, the California Department of Public Health announced the season's first death of a young child from complications of flu and RSV.

The joint statement from the hospitals—CHOMP, SVHS, Natividad and Mee Memorial—encouraged people to get vaccinated against the flu and Covid, including boosters for Covid. Both Covid and flu shots may be administered at the same time. (There is no vaccine for RSV.) The vaccines are safe and this year's flu vaccine appears to be a good match for the strains that are circulating.

Information on where to find vaccines is available at vaccines.gov or co.monterey.ca.us/government/departments-a-h/health.

Hospital officials also encouraged people to stay home when sick and wear a mask to help slow the spread of RSV to protect babies and young children who don't yet have immunity. Washing hands and covering coughs are also important. 

The rise in RSV is possibly due to the fact that young children were not exposed  due to pandemic shutdowns and social distancing, and therefore did not build up an immunity, said Erica Locke, an ER physician at SVMH. 

"With business, school and daycare shutdowns and a prolonged period of masking, many children were not exposed to RSV in the same way they have in previous years," Locke said in a written statement. "That means many babies and children did not have a chance to develop an immunity to the virus, making it especially important for parents to take precautions this season."

She said that RSV is a common respiratory illness that's been around for a long time, and can especially impact children and older adults. 

"Parents shouldn’t panic because of the increase in cases we’re seeing," Locke said. "Most children with coughing and runny nose type symptoms do just fine and will recover at home.

"Parents can do a lot at home before coming to the ER—giving acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen for a fever, using a bulb suction or nose frida, to help clear your child’s congestion, and using a cool mist humidifier can provide some relief and support at home," she added.

"The cases we admit are those with labored and rapid breathing in need of extra oxygen to help their bodies relax and have energy to fight the virus," Locke said. "The children we admit and those we transfer all tend to do well and they generally just need that extra support of oxygen and hydration."