Texas Children's Hospital in Austin has been seeing three common illnesses in its emergency room lately: gastrointestinal illnesses including acute gastroenteritis, rhinovirus, and enterovirus. Gastrointestinal illnesses come with nausea, diarrhea and sometimes vomiting. Rhinovirus looks and feels like a common cold with cough and fever. Enterovirus causes hand, foot and mouth disease in young children.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 0.1% of ER visits in Central Texas are for COVID, flu or RSV. However, the CDC marks Texas as one of only two states likely to have growing cases for COVID-19.
With temperatures in the 80s to low 90s, heat stroke and heat exhaustion cases have started to appear. Heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke are all possible in these conditions. Texas Children's reminds people to always check the back of the car for children or pets before getting out. Last year in Texas, eight kids, including two in San Antonio, died from heat stroke in cars.
West Nile virus can be transmitted by mosquitoes in the genus Culex. So far, Central Texas has not had cases, but those are expected to come as summer continues. Texas has started to see more serious mosquito-borne illnesses, with three cases of dengue fever and one case of chikungunya this year.
Summer grasses take over allergies this month, and grass allergens have been less than normal for this time of year. The spring trees, including oak, should be waning, but at the end of May, Central Texas still had some relatively high oak pollen days.
Texas Children's is seeing a number of kids coming in with concussions and broken legs and arms from riding electric bikes and electric scooters. Summer is often a time for increases in these kinds of injuries. Car wrecks also increase as more people are on driving vacations or driving to unfamiliar spots.
In Texas, 25 kids have drowned this year, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Many were in pools, but also in creeks, beaches, ponds, bathtubs and lakes. Have a designated sober person watching swimmers at all times and make sure there are barriers to prevent kids from getting into the water without an adult knowing.