Provider News

Viral Season Update: Illness and Volume Trends, and Helpful Resources for Our Community

July 2, 2025

External view of Seattle Children's Hospital

As with past viral seasons, our goal is to share information and resources with our larger community as we all work together to care for patients during this busy time.

Viral Trends and Hospital Volumes

ED Volumes: Volumes are starting to normalize (or stabilize) as we head into summer, although acuity remains high. Barring a significant summer COVID wave, we would expect the census to mirror previous summer months.
Measles: A patient treated at Seattle Children’s has tested positive for measles. See additional information and helpful resources below as we remain vigilant about infection prevention.
Influenza: Local and national Influenza activity is low. In our ED, most positives are influenza B (33 of 36), typical for spring. Treatment should be reserved for those who test positive.
RSV: RSV positives remain at interseasonal baselines.
SARS-CoV-2: In our hospital, COVID positives remain low. Aggregated US data show that the previous JN.1 lineage variants are rapidly being replaced by NB.1.8.1 (“Nimbus”). This variant was responsible for the recent surge in East Asia and comes from a different branch of the genetic tree. This variant also has several spike protein mutations that may make it more transmissible. We will likely have some sort of summer surge. It is still too early to predict how severe this surge will be. For now, numbers in case counts and wastewater detections remain low across the nation. There is nothing to suggest that this variant causes more severe illness.
Mpox: The outbreak in Central and East Africa is still ongoing and remains a public health emergency of international concern. Mpox testing is available at Seattle Children’s – if you feel your patient may have Mpox and want them tested, please call Mission Control at 206-987-8899.
Other Respiratory Viruses: Rhino/enterovirus, parainfluenza human metapneumovirus are the most common non-flu/non-RSV positives. Rhinovirus positives tend to be elevated throughout the year.
Mycoplasma: Mycoplasma activity has been slightly elevated since last summer but is waning and near baseline levels.
Pertussis: There has been an increase in pertussis activity state and nation-wide over the course of the year. We had been having 0-2 positives per week for several months.
Norovirus and Rotavirus: Norovirus activity is past its peak and continues to slowly fall. Rotavirus activity has been fluctuating this year and is currently elevated.

Special Pathogens Team Update

Seattle Children’s treated a pediatric patient who has tested positive for measles. The patient was not admitted. They were seen on June 20 and met criteria to test for measles.

Based on the symptoms and incubation period, the patient was determined to be infectious or able to spread measles as of June 20. There are three potential exposure windows at the Seattle Children’s Emergency Department and Forest B:

11:50 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Forest B parking garage, Forest B parking garage elevators, Forest Pharmacy and Forest B level 1 lobby
12 to 2:05 p.m.: Emergency Department lobby
3:40 to 5:45 p.m.: Emergency Department

We are notifying patients and families who may have been exposed, providing information about the exposure date and disease symptoms.

Public Health - Seattle & King County has shared a list of sites of possible community exposure.

Directing Patient’s to Seattle Children’s Who May Have Measles

At Seattle Children’s we have patients who may have measles enter the ED by an alternate route to avoid exposing other patients. If you are considering sending a patient for evaluation or treatment of measles, please call Mission Control at 206-987-8899 before sending the patient – they will work with our teams to facilitate evaluation while reducing exposure.

Measles Resources

Webinar Recording: Measles Community Response
Measles One-Pager for Healthcare Providers (AAP)
Measles - For Healthcare Professionals (CDC)
Measles Specimen Collection Instructions for RT-PCR (DOH)
Measles Specimen Collection Instructions for Serology (DOH)
Immunization Schedules (CDC)
Safety Information for Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) Vaccines (CDC)
Recognizing Measles in Your Patients (Pediatric Pandemic Network)
Vitamin A and Measles Vaccine Talking Point (Pediatric Pandemic Network)
Measles FAQ for Families & Caregivers (Pediatric Pandemic Network)

How You Can Help

To help maintain ED volumes, consider reminding families of your clinic’s resources and procedures for urgent and after-hours patient needs to help direct them to the most appropriate site of care.
Encourage families to review our ED vs. Urgent Care guide to find the most appropriate care setting – we have options for in-person and virtual urgent care, orthopedic urgent care and psychiatric urgent care.
Families should be prepared that, if viral testing is deemed clinically appropriate, it will typically be performed using a panel that identifies only influenza, RSV and COVID-19.
Before sending your patient to the ED, contact our Mission Control team with as much notice as possible at 206-987-8899. This helps us plan for your patient’s arrival, especially if there are concerns for communicable diseases.