What Is Croup and How To Treat It As Omicron COVID Variant Linked to the Cough

What Is Croup and How To Treat It As Omicron COVID Variant Linked to the Cough

Doctors in some parts of the country have linked the Omicron COVID-19 variant, which now accounts for the vast majority of cases in the United States, to a condition affecting children under five years of age known as croup.

Dr. Saif Al Qatarneh, a pediatric pulmonologist at West Virginia University, told NBC News that he had noticed an increase in croup diagnoses, as well as an infection of the respiratory tract called bronchiolitis, alongside a rise in pediatric COVID cases.

Dr. Buddy Creech, a pediatric infectious disease expert and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, also told NBC that he and his colleagues have observed "croup-like presentations" in young children who test positive for COVID-19.