RSV cases surge in NSW, affecting both young kids and adults

A NSW mum has described her experience with RSV as numbers surge across the state, saying both she and her young daughter suffered ‘horrible, choking coughs’.

It’s a virus that usually affects children but, this year record numbers of adults are catching RSV — and some say the symptoms are even worse than Covid, with a terrible cough that can linger for weeks.

Wollongong mum Natassia Soper and her daughter Kora have contracted respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, twice, suffering serious coughs, chills and fatigue.

“It’s horrible, especially when you see your little ones suffering so much and you’re so helpless,” Mrs Soper said.

“You have all the same symptoms as Covid but then you have this horrible cough which just makes it worse.”

RSV is a particularly common yet unpredictable virus and a major cause of hospitalisation in young children and older adults.

Natassia Soper with Kora and son Harvey said the cough developed along with RSV is a nightmare to deal with. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Signs of severe RSV include a barking cough with thick mucus that can hang around for a month, shortness of breath and a greater effort to breathe, a high fever, blue tint to the skin and wheezing.

So far this year, there have been 44,409 confirmed cases of RSV in NSW and, while it most commonly affects children under four, cases in adults aged between 20 and 60 are surging.

More than 7600 adults in that age group have fallen ill with the virus this year, compared to just 1600 last year.

Kora was just two when she was first struck down with the virus, suffering a severe cough that got so bad she struggled to breathe.

Mrs Soper caught it next, suffering chills, fevers, the dreadful cough and congested sinuses.

“We were swabbed for Covid and it returned a positive result for RSV, which we had never heard of at the time,” she said.

Natassia Soper with Kora in hospital due to RSV.

“I was down and out for three weeks but there’s really not much the doctors can do for you.

“Kora was so ill and had this terrible, choking cough.”

A year later, they caught the virus once again but this time Mrs Soper was pregnant.

“I went to the doctors to make sure that we could still hear my unborn baby’s heartbeat because I was so concerned about how much I was coughing,” she said.

“It was really scary. I was just so concerned that I was so sick and I was coughing so much that I had done something to him or he had been affected by it.”

Kora was even taken to the emergency department on one occasion because of her cough, which was making it so hard to breathe she was throwing up from the stress.

Dr Rebekah Hoffman said while cases were surging among all age groups, she still held particular concern for young children and babies.

“It can be a really scary virus because of the respiratory nature of it,” she said.

“It can affect the lungs and breathing, particularly in young kids.

“That’s where we see them deteriorate really quickly and can end up either needing oxygen support in a hospital.”

With cases in NSW seven times higher than last year, Immunisation Foundation of Australia

Founder Catherine Hughes said RSV has historically been under-reported in Australia, only becoming a notifiable disease on a national scale last year.

“Australia has seen a recent increase in RSV cases reported, which may be due to both a resurgence of the virus after the pandemic and improved testing and reporting by healthcare professionals,” she said.

“There is still a lot to learn about its true impact across Australian communities and healthcare settings.”

Ms Hughes urged people to stay home if they are sick, and practise good hygiene ahead of the social Christmas period.

She also renewed calls for an RSV vaccination to be introduced in Australia.

Mrs Soper echoed her calls, saying her young family’s social life had changed following their experience with RSV, due to fears Kora, or her one-year-old son Harvey could catch it.

“When we had Harvey, we were extremely careful of where we would go and who we interacted with, for fear of him contracting Covid or RSV,” she said.

“We have changed our lifestyle because of it.”

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