Despite a relatively slow start to respiratory disease season, low vaccination rates threaten that trend and the rapid rise of some illnesses is already putting children at increased risk. Overall ...

Most kids will catch this highly contagious respiratory virus at some point before they turn 2, according to the CDC. For many healthy adults and older kids, RSV causes a mild illness like a cold.

The percentage of children ages 2-4 diagnosed with a respiratory illness-bacteria grew from 1% to 7.2% between March 31 and Oct. 5, the CDC reported.

CDC data shows that children aged 4 and under accounted for 6.7% of emergency department visits for COVID-19, flu and RSV compared to 1.1% among those aged 65 and older during the week of Nov. 23.