An exhausted mother of four brought in her youngest child, not even 6 months old, to the doctor’s office where I was working for a barking, unending cough. The baby struggled to catch her breath and threw up her milk as she cried. Her test was positive for respiratory syncytial virus, and her mother, who was also now sick, wondered aloud about how she would be able to take time off from work.
When I lived in Missouri, I worked at a pediatric clinic, and such situations were not uncommon. Parents would bring their children to the clinic for RSV testing, often after a day care outbreak, and stay home from work or rely on other family members — if they were lucky — to care for their sick children. My experience at the clinic taught me that access to affordable child care is more than a concern for families — it is a public health issue that needs to be a bigger priority.
This winter, RSV, influenza and COVID-19 cases have plagued our hospitals in a “tripledemic” that only recently has started to decline. With 16% of families in Chicago having at least one child with asthma (compared with a 12% national average), the prevalence of RSV is especially concerning. RSV is a respiratory virus that most children encounter by the age of 2, but children with more severe RSV are at higher risk for developing childhood asthma as a result. Catching a serious respiratory infection can therefore have long-term ramifications on children’s health — and their parents’ livelihoods.
