MINNEAPOLIS, January 8, 2008—MMA Secretary-treasurer Carolyn McKay, M.D., appeared on KSTP-TV News Thursday to discuss respiratory infections in children.

Metro physicians have been seeing an increase in respiratory infections this year, McKay said. At Children’s Hospitals and Clinics, cases of Respiratory Syncytial Virus are up over last year. More than 250 children have been diagnosed with RSV at Children's since Dec. 15.

"It frequently is associated with fever, clear runny nose, severe cough and the illness tends to last a week to two weeks," said McKay a pediatrician at Fairview Children's Clinic. "It's particularly bad in kids under a year."

Text for the KSTP story is online at kstp.com/article/stories/S305507.shtml?cat=1. Video can be seen by going to the same link and clicking on the headline "Spike in Children Sick."