A virus circulating in Georgia is driving clinic visits marked by high fever together with a rash or watery diarrhea, according to Professor Ivane Chkhaidze, medical director of Tbilisi’s Iashvili Central Children’s Hospital.
What doctors are seeing now
Chkhaidze said families are mainly seeking care for illnesses that combine elevated temperature with skin rash or viral diarrhea that produces large volumes of watery stool. He described the pattern as the main reason for current admissions and outpatient appeals at pediatric facilities.
Respiratory complaints have eased by comparison. Cases of pneumonia, bronchiolitis, spasmodic cough and illnesses with rapid breathing have declined, he said, and such presentations should now be uncommon rather than routine.
Shift away from respiratory viruses
“The number of visits with symptoms of respiratory system disease has fallen sharply,” Chkhaidze said. “There is no peak of activity for viruses that hit the respiratory tract right now; a virus that, along with fever, can cause a rash or accelerated bowel activity is more widespread.”
He framed the change as a seasonal or epidemiological swing rather than a nationwide emergency: doctors are still treating febrile children, but the dominant profile has moved from lung and airway infections toward fever-plus-rash or fever with intestinal upset.
Parents and caregivers are advised to treat persistent high fever, dehydration from watery diarrhea, or rapidly spreading rash as reasons to seek medical assessment. Officials have not named a single causative strain in the hospital’s public remarks; clinicians continue to manage cases by symptom pattern while laboratory confirmation follows usual pediatric protocols.
