Rsv how long contagious

This is given as a series of monthly shots during RSV seasons, which is in the fall, winter and spring months. Help me find… Search Search. You may also like:.

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The following tips can help prevent the spread of the virus to your baby: Ask people to first wash their hands before touching your baby. Avoid kissing your baby in the face if you have cold symptoms. Keep your baby away from crowds. Limit the time high-risk babies and young children stay in day care, particularly from late fall to early spring when RSV is most prevalent. If possible, keep your baby away from anyone, including older siblings, with cold symptoms.

Avoid environments with smoke. To prevent serious RSV-related respiratory disease, at-risk infants can be given a monthly injection of a medication consisting of RSV antibodies. Antibiotics aren't used because RSV is a virus.

In healthy kids it's not necessary to distinguish RSV from a common cold. For most babies and young children, at-home care for RSV is enough. At-home treatment includes: Removing sticky nasal fluids with a bulb syringe using saline drops Using a cool-mist vaporizer to keep the air moist and make breathing easier Providing fluids in small amounts frequently through the day Giving non-aspirin fever-reducers such as acetaminophen For babies with more serious cases requiring hospitalization, treatment may include: Oxygen IV fluids Medications to open the airways.

RSV infection is entirely preventable. Want to learn more about RSV? Visit the following links:. Just as you would to prevent germs at any time, use soap and water and scrub for at least 20 seconds. Remind children to practice good hand hygiene all through the year. Your pediatrician will let you know if your baby is a candidate. Medicine is always advancing!

Scientists are currently studying vaccines to prevent and medications to treat RSV. We may have more options in the future. In the meantime, rest assured that most children recover well from RSV and grow to be healthy adults. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Please enable scripts and reload this page. Turn on more accessible mode. Turn off more accessible mode. Skip Ribbon Commands.

Skip to main content. Turn off Animations. Turn on Animations. Our Sponsors Log in Register. Log in Register. For some, those may be the only symptoms. But roughly half of all children who are infected for the first time experience the later-stage and more intense coughing and wheezing symptoms. This can be serious for infants younger than 6 months. This can create difficulty in their breathing, and sometimes their noses are so congested they have trouble breathing through their noses.

RSV is very contagious. It can spread through the droplets released into the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or if you touch a contaminated surface, such as counters or doorknobs where it can live for hours. It can also spread through direct contact kissing the face of a child with RSV, for example.

People with RSV are contagious for three to eight days after exposure. People of any age can get an RSV infection, but previous exposure tends to reduce the severity of symptoms. Here is a list of those with the highest risk of becoming seriously ill from RSV:.

RSV can be confirmed with lab tests using a nasal mucus swab, but testing will only be done if it will affect the treatment plan, explains Dr. There is no specific treatment for RSV infections.