BOSTON (WHDH) - Boston-area hospitals are struggling to keep up with an “unprecedented surge” in cases of RSV — respiratory syncytial virus — and local parents are on high alert and watching their children for symptoms.

Poornima Santas, of Needham, has been caring for her 6-month-old daughter at home as she continues to recover from a case of RSV.

“If she was having trouble breathing – like using her whole stomach to breathe … if I could see any respiratory distress, I’d take her into the hospital,” Santas told 7NEWS.

As her daughter recovers, doctors at Mass General Brigham in Boston say they’re seeing an “unprecedented surge” in cases that has the largest healthcare system in the Bay State declaring a “capacity disaster.”

“All of us are full every single day, at any given time there are no available pediatric ICU beds, no general pediatric general care beds and almost all are operating over capacity,” said Dr. Brian Cummings, medical director of the Department of Pediatrics as Mass General Brigham.

Erica Melmed said she felt lucky to have taken her son to get care at Newtown Wellesley Hospital last week, before the sudden surge in cases, adding, “It’s pretty scary.”

Mass General reports seeing 2,000 cases of RSV during the month of October — which they say is 20 to 60 percent higher than usual — and it’s still rising. There were more than 1,000 cases in the first week of November.

“Over the last 2 years our children really haven’t been exposed to routine virus,” said Dr. Alexy Arauz Boudreau, assistant chief of pediatrics primary care at Mass General Brigham. “And now that they’re no longer masking or social distancing their immune systems are encountering new viruses.”

Pediatric beds at Umass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester are also full. A hospital spokesperson said it’s a problem plaguing not only Massachusetts, but New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island as well.

“If there’s a point where you see that your child is working very hard to breathe, working hard to breathe at rest, changes in color, that’s when you go immediately to the emergency room,” Boudreau said.

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