A dozen North Slope infants and children have been airlifted from Barrow to Anchorage hospitals this winter after acquiring a virus that's packing an uncommon punch.
Respiratory syncytial virus -- the top cause of serious respiratory infections in young children -- has spiked in the community of 4,200 and some Inupiat villages, said Julian Gonzalez, a physician at Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital.
The regional hospital in Barrow has treated 26 cases of people hit with the virus this year, a notable increase over previous years, Gonzalez said.
"A lot of kids have been pretty severely affected by it," he said.
Caregivers at the Barrow hospital have slid tubes down the throats of 12 children, most of them younger than 2, so machines could breath for them, Gonzalez said. The children were flown to Anchorage hospitals for more intensive treatment.
No one has died, he said. A couple of children weakened by the virus contracted a bacterial infection that led to pneumonia.
"I think they're all doing OK," he said.
The virus inflames the lower respiratory tract and can make breathing difficult, especially for infants and small children, Gonzalez said.
It's usually spread from person to person by coughs, sneezes, running noses and unwashed hands. It infects nearly all children by age 3, but most suffer only mild symptoms similar to colds.
To protect against the virus, Gonzalez said, most nurses at the hospital are wearing surgical masks. They're asking coughing patients to don masks and want visiting families to leave healthy kids at home, he said.
RSV is the most common cause of pneumonia in young children, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alaska Natives are at greater risk of hospitalization than most other races. Such factors as household crowding and premature births can worsen the risk, the CDC says.
It can take lives; three Alaska infants died in 1988, according to a news report from the time.
Children from homes where people smoke are at greater risk of being severely infected, Gonzalez said, because smoking hurts the respiratory defense mechanisms.
Beth Funk, a state medical epidemiologist, said the state doesn't track RSV cases.
But statewide, the respiratory infections seem more common this year than in recent years, she said. That's based on what she's heard from talking with colleagues and others.
Why the surge in North Slope cases?
It seemed to start in Wainwright, Gonzalez said. The village of 520 people west of Barrow had a higher-than-normal number of cases at the beginning of the year, he said.
It might have spread at Barrow's Kivgik dance festival, an event that draws villagers from across the North Slope once every three years, Gonzalez said.
The virus spreads more easily in crowded places; cases seemed to increase when the festival ended two weeks ago, he said.
Daily News reporter Alex deMarban can be reached at ademarban@adn.com.
