What NJ families need to know about highly contagious RSV this season

🔺 RSV season hits NJ as experts warn families about rising winter virus spread and symptoms
🔺 Pediatric nurse practitioner urges parents to ask about monoclonal antibody protection for high-risk babies.
🔺 Red-flag signs like rapid breathing and blue lips — signal a medical emergency

Along with the holidays, “tis the season” for cold, flu and virus spread in New Jersey and nationwide.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus — or RSV — can cause cold-like symptoms in most people, but serious illness among infected newborns, older babies and elderly or immunocompromised adults.

The season typically runs from September through April, with the peak number of cases in the winter months.

RSV usually lasts about 14 days, with peak symptoms between days four and six.

Mild symptoms include fever, runny nose with very thick mucus, cough and decreased appetite.

Each year in the U.S., RSV leads to about 2.1 million outpatient visits and 58,000-80,000 hospital stays among children younger than 5, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases has reported.

Last year appeared to see a surge in U.S. cases — 3.6 million to 6.5 million outpatient visits for RSV, 190,000 to 350,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 to 23,000 deaths, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data for October 2024 through May 3, 2025.

That included a spike in winter RSV cases in New Jersey, causing a number of emergency rooms to go on divert as they scrambled to keep up, according to Meghan Faulkner, a certified pediatric acute care nurse practitioner and clinical instructor at Rutgers School of Nursing.

So far, New Jersey has been off to a slower start this season.

New monoclonal antibodies now available for infants

Families need to know about the availability of monoclonal antibodies to ward off the worst of RSV, Faulkner said in a recent interview ith New Jersey 101.5.

In 2023, the FDA approved use of monoclonal antibodies for newborns and other babies who are at high risk, if infected.

Use of these helps avoid the most severe illness and the highest volume of viral spread.

Faulkner said now is the time to talk with pediatricians about such preventative measures.

Read More: NJ’s first fatal alpha-gal case tied to lone star tick

RSV red-flag symptoms parents must know

Faulkner also shared a red flag checklist to watch for those in respiratory distress:

🔺 rapid breathing

🔺 babies flaring nostrils, head bobbing or ribs sucking in to breathe

🔺 lethargy, wheezing

🔺 color change, in which the skin or lips turn blue

If a parent or caregiver observes any of these symptoms, seek immediate care, and also be aware of how easily babies can get dehydrated.

Beyond newborns, RSV infection can be very serious for our elderly population, as it can lead to pneumonia.

How RSV spreads and how families can reduce risk

RSV can spread not just through droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, but also through direct contact with someone who has RSV, or by touching a contaminated surface.

Frequent hand washing, with soap and water, and lengthy enough to sing the 'Happy Birthday" song to yourself twice, is a key method of minimizing viral spread.

Faulkner says Thanksgiving into the winter holidays is when we see disease transmission really spike so keep fragile newborns away from spread, as they’re building up their immune systems.

She if steering clear of a larger gathering is just not realistic, “wearing the baby” in a wrap carrier, or keeping them in a detached, portable car seat with say a cloth cover gives some extra virus “buffer.”

At the start of her 20-plus year medical career, Faulkner said babies with RSV often had to be intubated.

She said there have been amazing advancements that have produced non-invasive approaches, such as high-flow nasal cannula, which administers pure oxygen — or even pressure, as needed — through two tubes under a baby’s nose.

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