“This is really, really noteworthy”: Primary Children’s Hospital reports historically low cases of RSV, influenza

Salt Lake City — COVID-19 infection rates continue to decline, but the two illnesses that usually result in many pediatric hospitalizations are rarely present during the winter months.

RS virus, Or RSV, and influenza have virtually not caused hospitalization at the Primary Children’s Hospital. This is a welcome surprise for pediatric professionals who usually handle 80-120 RSV hospitalizations and stay in dozens of intensive care units a week, in addition to hundreds of influenza hospitalizations per year.

“This is really, really noteworthy,” said Dr. Andrew Pavia, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Primary Children’s Hospital, at a press conference on Monday about the tendency of pediatric hospitalization for both viruses.

In hospitals, cases of rare complications due to SARS-CoV-2 are increasing. Pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, Or than MIS-C, flu or RSV. It is estimated that approximately 75 MIS-C cases have been treated in hospitals in the last few months.

RSV affects “virtually every child” in the first few years of life. It usually causes coughing and wheezing. Some children are short of breath and need to be hospitalized.

Adults over the age of 75 also suffer from RSV. Pavia said it would result in many elderly cases of pneumonia. Older children and adults usually experience cold-like symptoms.

The Primary Children’s Hospital has never reported any RSV hospitalization during the normal season.

“I’m seeing something I haven’t seen in the last 35 years,” Pavia said. “Going back to history, it hasn’t actually happened except right after the 2009 flu epidemic.”

Next is the flu, which often affects hundreds of thousands of Americans each year. So far, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention In the United States, nearly one million tests have confirmed a total of just under 1,600 cases of influenza.

The CDC reports that influenza cases are “minimal” in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. In fact, less than 20 new cases were reported in the last week.

These are similar to trends that are almost unprecedented in Utah.

The· Utah Department of Health Weekly Influenza Dashboard Shows that by February 13th, there were only a total of 13 hospitalizations for influenza. There were a total of 1,310 hospitalizations for influenza. last year..

Pavia said there was one pediatric hospitalization compared to the “hundreds” that normally occur at this point in the flu season.

There were so few recent cases that we did not have enough data to post the latest positive rates for influenza. The numbers on the graph compared to the previous year are staggering.

It is unclear why both viruses have essentially disappeared this winter. One theory of influenza is that during the winter in the Southern Hemisphere, cases were so few and travel restrictions were in place that the flu could not actually be carried over from that part of the world. Second, masks and other guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19 help prevent other respiratory illnesses.

Meanwhile, RSV is “somewhat complicated,” Pavia added.

“RSV is not completely gone every summer. It can have a warm climate all year round,” he said. “In places like New Orleans and Miami, we have RSV throughout the year, so I think we’ll have RSV this winter and it’s going to be a reservoir where it’s happening, but it’s not.”

Masking, keeping children home and reducing the likelihood of exposure of babies to RSV is the theory that Pavia can explain its decline. Still, experts don’t know why it’s “virtually zero” not only in Utah, but across the country.

Why RSV and Flu “Grow” Back

But be careful with the good news. Australian doctors reported similar trends for both influenza and RSV during the Southern Hemisphere winter. Then, just before the start of summer in the Southern Hemisphere, the number of RSVs surged.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported last December RSV cases of all ages occurred from near zero during the winter in New South Wales. By November, there were more than 1,600 cases in the month alone.

“If both flu and RSV are separated for some time, it is very likely that more people will be completely vulnerable to the flu,” Pavia said. “So when it arrives, it spreads more dramatically and we see more serious illness.”

The reason the flu recurs more violently is because it is difficult to know which strain of the virus will arrive as the flu adapts. On the other hand, a decrease in RSV means that if RSV arrives later this year or next year, more groups of babies will have to fight RSV for the first time because they are not experiencing it now.

“When RSV comes back, it will do something really strange,” Pavia added. “We can’t really predict it well. Our intuition is that it will come back, and when it comes back it will be a bad RSV year.”

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