San Diego Schools, Children’s Hospitals Surge in Respiratory Illness

The alarming spike in respiratory illnesses at San Diego’s high school and the area’s only children’s hospital is strong evidence that a severe flu season has arrived earlier this year.

About 1,000 of the 2,600 students at Patrick Henry High School in San Carlos were absent Wednesday, most of them said to have fallen ill the week after the homecoming weekend. Hundreds of school officials told parents in a notice that they had tested negative for COVID-19 and that public health officials suspected the unprecedented outbreak was caused by influenza. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) may also play a role.

San Diego County Deputy Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser said his office is monitoring the outbreak because of its sheer scale. No school reported that his 40% of students became ill during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The global public health community has warned for months that the US may be in danger particularly severe flu season After a severe bout of flu-related illness flooded Australian hospitals during the southern hemisphere winter season in recent months.

“It’s pretty amazing to see this in October,” Kaiser said. “The majority of children are doing well, but if there’s a large flu outbreak in your local high school, it’s probably happening elsewhere in your community.”

Officials said they were looking for mass absenteeism at other local schools as well, but had not yet been informed of other cases.

“There is no reason to believe that it is purely restricted. [Patrick Henry High],” Kaiser Said.

Already, the region’s total flu cases for the season, which began on July 1, is a whopping 1,000 confirmed cases so far. , 304 cases were recorded, compared with an average of 22 in the previous 5 years.

And it’s not just the flu that’s on the rise.

Rady Children’s Hospital has seen an unexpected increase in the number of children visiting emergency departments with runny noses, coughs, sneezes, fevers and shortness of breath, officials said Wednesday afternoon.

Although these children have tested negative for coronavirus, the majority have been confirmed to have RSV, said Dr. John Bradley, director of Rady’s Division of Infectious Diseases. is one of several viruses that cause the common cold, but some infections can be more serious, especially in young children.

Bradley said the hospital has received about 250 infants with RSV infection, who have developed lower respiratory tract infections and, in some cases, viral pneumonia, requiring supplemental oxygen therapy.

RSV is highly contagious and is known to increase sick visitors during the winter months, but Bradley said such a furiously early arrival is extremely rare. .

“In my 34 years here, I’ve never seen a volume like this in October,” says Bradley. “It’s the kind of thing you might see in January when the flu is prevalent, but not in October.”

Bradley said about 20% of children admitted to intensive care units in Laidy on Wednesday were admitted for severe respiratory distress caused by RSV-related lung inflammation.

People with milder respiratory problems receive supplemental oxygen for about two days, while those in intensive care have chronic lung disease that requires additional “positive pressure” to open the lung passages. He said he tends to suffer from disability or neuropathy.

“All they need is oxygen and a little pressure to help expand their lungs, and they’ll be fine,” Bradley said, adding that less than 10% of children with RSV are in need of intensive care, he added.

As to why RSV has infected local children so quickly and furiously, Bradley said it could be a more aggressive strain of the virus circulating this year. But his COVID-19 pandemic, which kept young children at home for the first few years of their lives, may also have played a role.

RSV is known to be the most common cause of hospitalization for pneumonia in children, he says, and the first or second infection is most likely to be severe. After the immune system has had a few chances to fight off the virus, symptoms become more cold-like for the rest of a person’s life.

Children who spent the first few years of their lives in preventive isolation for COVID-19 did not subsequently acquire RSV and became infected with RSV as they reached preschool age.

“From a birth cohort perspective, children who have never had RSV in the community today are probably two to three times more susceptible,” said Bradley. “Once they get infected, this spreads to their older siblings, so we not only take in a lot of infants, but also a lot of older children with asthma and other underlying conditions.”