Runny nose, fever, cough, even pneumonia - symptoms sound like swine flu, but the children admitted to an American hospital in fact had a Rhino virus, better known as a common cold virus, doctors said.
Hundreds of children treated at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia had a Rhino virus, and federal health investigators are trying to determine if there was another charge, and if this happens elsewhere in the country.
"It started to happen in early September, we began to see more children coming to our emergency department with significant respiratory disease, said Dr. Susan Coffin, medical director for control and prevention of infections in hospitals.
Doctors and parents assumed it was the new pandemic influenza H1N1 swine, expected to resurface as the schools began in September. But it was not, Coffin said in a telephone interview.
The hospital, in contrast to most hospitals in the United States, runs a test that can diagnose 10 different respiratory viruses, including influenza, but also rhinoviruses, para influenza virus and other germs that make their children sick.
"The data showed us it was not H1N1, but instead was the Rhino virus infection" Coffin said.
Normally rhinoviruses cause an annoying but benign disease, which looks very like the flu, but with more runny nose and fever, usually less. One was causing severe symptoms, and even pneumonia.
"Some of these kids had really bad wheezing, Coffin said - so bad that they had to be hospitalized and treated with a Nebulizer to deliver medication into the lungs to keep oxygen in the blood.
"We have not very often have a large number of children tested positive for it," said Coffin.
CDC EXPLORATION
But she estimates that 500 were hospitalized in September and October, with no deaths, she knows. Begins in mid-October began H1N1 swine influenza to appear also.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating, said CDC spokesman Dave Daigle.
"While the Rhino virus outbreaks are common in autumn, the eruption that took place this year was unusually high, and resulted in numerous hospitalizations, including many children who required intensive care," Daigle said.
"We're still testing the strains from the outbreak, but from what we've seen so far, it appears that there is one dominant tribe.
The CDC says that while the swine flu epidemic is over the level, only 30 percent of cases of so-called flu-like illness that has been tested in fact turns out to be H1N1.
Coffin and CDC officials said it's important for people to not assume if they or their children have flu-like symptoms that it was swine flu, and they do not need to be vaccinated.
H1N1 has infected an estimated 22 million people were killed and 3900 in the United States alone. It continues to spread globally and governments are only the beginning of efforts to vaccinate people against the virus.
There is no vaccine against Rhino virus, and no good treatment. For seriously ill patients, the hospital tries to keep the blood oxygen level up and keep the patient hydrated, often with intravenous lines, if they are coughing or wheezing too hard to eat or drink.
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