Surge in cases of RSV, a virus that can severely sicken infants, is filling hospital beds

On Sunday night, 4-month-old Aesop Light was happy and alert. By Monday morning, he was struggling to breathe.

Aesop’s parents, Corey and Tara Light, took him to an emergency room near their home in the Chicago suburbs, but it didn’t have a children’s wing, so Aesop was rushed by ambulance to another hospital an hour away. He tested positive for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a common virus that causes lung infections.

Aesop’s condition “went downhill really fast,” Tara said.

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