Jan. 3, 2001- Cold weather and dirty air mean a lot of sick kids along the Wasatch Front.
Primary Children's Hospital Emergency Room has seen a dramatic increase in respiratory sicknesses over the past several days. In fact, doctors in E.R. saw about 145 patients with respiratory or other viral complaints on New Year's Day alone.
The patient load at Primary is averaging about 130 to 140 patients per day. Doctors say both viral infections and smoggy conditions seem to be aggravating respiratory complications.
Bronchitis-like coughs and difficulty breathing. Primary nurses and doctors have been seeing the symptoms for the past several weeks, but only in the past few days has the number of sick kids jumped dramatically.
KRIS RITTICHIER, M.D., PCMC EMERGENCY PEDIATRICIAN: "ALL AGES. WE'VE SEEN BRONCHITIS IN TWO WEEKERS, ALL THE WAY UP TO THE EIGHTEEN YEAR OLDS THAT ARE COMING IN WITH WHEEZING AND RESPIRATORY ILLNESSES."
ED YEATES, SCIENCE SPECIALIST: "FOR LAURI AND LEE HENSON, NEW YEAR'S EVE WAS CERTAINLY NOT A TIME FOR CELEBRATION. LITTLE TWO-MONTH-OLD SARAH WAS A PRETTY SICK CHILD."
Sarah picked up the Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV. Those numbers also have been picking up over the past several days.
Physicians say the holidays where people gathered together certainly helped spread more than good cheer.
LAURI HENSON, SARAH'S MOTHER: "WITH CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS, WE WERE AROUND ALL THE COUSINS AND UNCLES WHO HAVE COUGHS AND HAVE HAD COLDS FOR A FEW WEEKS. SO WE TRIED TO KEEP HER AWAY, BUT WITH THE HOLIDAYS, IT WAS HARD TO STAY AWAY FROM THEM."
Dr. Kris Rittichier says generally the sicknesses coming into E.R. right now are spawned from a combination of both viral infections and the smog.
Dr. Kris Rittichier: "OH YES. IN FACT THE PEDIATRIC PATIENTS WE SEE WITH ASTHMA WHO HAVE RECENTLY ACQUIRED A VIRAL ILLNESS CAN DEFINITELY BE EXAGGERATED BY THE SMOG AND HAZE THAT WE HAVE IN THE ENVIRONMENT RIGHT NOW."
State Epidemiologist Craig Nichols says influenza or the official flu, as we call it, could also pick up in numbers dramatically over the next two to three weeks. If so, it will be right on schedule.
