Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield is concerned about the rise in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases in children.
It comes as hospitals all over the country have recently been flooded with a sudden spike in cases.
"We are certainly concerned about the sharp rise in RSV cases, this is a nasty virus and for young babies it’s very debilitating and makes them very sick," Bloomfield said at today's 1pm press conference.
"It is a classic thing that happens every winter, like the flu peak, once again this year as happened last year we are seeing very little rise in flu cases.
"However, with RSV we had very little cases last year and this year we are seeing the usual increase in these cases and there is some speculation this may be exacerbated by the fact we didn’t have any last year so there is a bigger pool of children susceptible to it."
He added that the illness is always a challenge for hospitals to deal with in winter.
Bloomfield says if parents need more information about RSV they can contact Healthline or Plunkett.
Some DHBs, including Northland and Hawke's Bay, are changing their visitor policy in a bid to keep the virus from spreading.
Yesterday, clinical leader of Wellington hospital's child health service, Andrew Marshall told RNZ it has an entire ward dedicated to babies with the virus, many of them very sick.
"They are breathing very fast, finding it very difficult to breathe, and it's very distressing, lots of coughing," he said.
"They can't breastfeed because they're too breathless."
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