The virus has landed a child in the ICU this summer, but it’s not all Covid

The out-of-season surge of winter viruses is causing children to land in hospitals in the middle of summer.

Illnesses include bad colds, croups that cause bad coughs, and Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV..

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As the grade approached, worries about the rise already overwhelmed doctors. They are not only hoping for the further spread of the winter virus. They also anticipate an increase in Covid cases among young students. Virtually all elementary school children, children under the age of 12, are not vaccinated and some school districts say they are not vaccinated. Need a mask in the classroom, Regardless of vaccination status.

Dr. Christine Moffitt, MD, Physician for Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital in Boston, said:

Currently, the circulating virus spreads primarily through the respiratory droplets that are exhaled when a person coughs or sneezes.Some of the viruses that cause Hand-foot-and-mouth diseaseGo from person to person through unwashed hands.

RSV is especially dangerous for infants and babies because it can cause pneumonia, bronchiolitis, and inflammation of the small airways in the lungs.

“Usually, we don’t see any RSV during the summer,” said Dr. David Kimberlin, co-director of the Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The increase in such infections in June and July “beyond our worst winter with respect to RSV hospitalization,” he said.

Dr. Buddy Kulich, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, saw a similar increase in out-of-season viruses.

“Our children’s hospital is busy mainly with the winter virus returning with revenge,” he said.

In June, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned doctors, especially about the epidemic of RSV. Southern state.. Kimberlin said the influx of RSV cases almost exhausted his pediatric intensive care unit.

The team had to activate an additional team of doctors to float. “It was all hands-on decks,” he said.

Although cases of RSV are beginning to ease in the south, there are early signs that the virus has moved to the north.

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Dr. Sean O’Leary, an infectious disease doctor at Colorado Children’s Hospital, said there was a “significant rise” in cases of RSV.

Other viruses, usually found in winter, such as enterovirus and parainfluenza 3, also land children in hospitals this summer, causing croup.

“We have cases of bronchiolitis usually caused by RSV, but we can also see it with other viruses,” O’Leary said.

And Covid remains a threat to children.by Latest report The American Academy of Pediatrics has reported approximately 130 new Covid-related pediatric hospitalizations since July 8.

It is not entirely clear why the typical winter virus emerges during the summer. O’Leary, vice chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Infectious Diseases Commission, suggested that one reason was that distance and masking guidelines were “slowly but surely loosened.”

“There is much more mixing among people than before,” he said.

Kimberlin agreed. “These viruses thrive through social interactions,” he said.

The effects of the atypical winter virus season of 2020-21 may continue into the next season.

“The pandemic has all failed,” said Dr. Bernhard Wiedermann, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. winter. “

CDC director Rochelle Walensky warned in a testimony at the Senate Health, Education and Labor Pensions Committee on Tuesday that schoolchildren’s illness could increase.

“These kids weren’t in school. They weren’t with each other. I’m worried about upper respiratory tract infections,” Warensky said, whether the symptoms were due to Covid-19 or another virus. He added that coronavirus testing is important for determining. ..

Doctors expect an increase in Covid cases in unvaccinated infants.

“As the pandemic progresses, it’s unwise to think that children will not continue to be affected because they haven’t been vaccinated yet,” Kulich said.

“We have to focus on the most vulnerable people around us,” he said. “Now they are our children.”

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