Children’s hospitals in Connecticut continue to be blamed for respiratory syncytial virus cases as the arrival of the flu threatens to exacerbate the ongoing crisis.
“There’s a lot of data that suggests we’re going to see a fairly severe flu spike,” said Matthew Bizarro, Ph.D., associate director of clinical operations for pediatrics at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. “Given how stretched our hospital beds and staffing are right now, it will be very difficult if we start seeing similar numbers of influenza to RSV.”
Both of Connecticut’s major children’s hospitals have been flooded with patients with RSV, rhinovirus, flu and other illnesses in recent weeks. In mid-October, Connecticut Children’s Chief Physician Dr. Juan Salazar said the hospital was seeing a never-before-seen number of patients and described the influx as “his COVID in pediatrics.”
Since then, Connecticut Children’s has drawn attention from news outlets such as CNN, PBS, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic, and has become a poster child for the national trend of viral infections among children. At one point, the hospital opened a makeshift unit to treat the extra patients.
Dr. Ian Michelow, director of pediatric infectious diseases and immunology at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, said Tuesday that the hospital has not made a final decision on whether to request the Guard.
“It’s still very busy. The emergency department is still overwhelmed. Often it’s not possible to accommodate all the children within the main floor, so children waiting for a bed in the main hospital are often overwhelmed.” It’s like every day,” Mickelow said. “We are literally monitoring the situation daily.”
Similarly, Bizzarro said the situation at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital has not improved much in recent weeks. Currently, the hospital is treating 46 respiratory syncytial virus patients, about a quarter of whom require intensive care.
“Cases of viral infections continue to surge, requiring hospitalization for large numbers of pediatric patients and continue to be primarily caused by RSV,” Bizzarro said. We’ve reached capacity and that’s normal.”
Yale University has seen an increase in RSV cases every week since mid-September, with 210 new cases in the last week of October, according to a publicly available online tracker. RSV, a common respiratory virus that typically spreads in the winter, broke out earlier this year and is often the most severe in children under the age of five.
Bizarro said Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital this week added space for sick children to floors normally used for other purposes, and asked Public Health and Public Health about how best to share resources and expertise. He said he is in close contact with the Connecticut Hospital Association.
RSV is the main cause of the surge in new cases in children’s hospitals in Connecticut, but other illnesses such as rhinovirus and influenza also contribute. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States saw its highest level of flu infections in a decade during this time.
Michelow said he’s alarmed to see the flu creeping up the East Coast, reaching New York City and now Connecticut.
“Last week I predicted it was going to hit us next week, and literally yesterday there were 20 positive flu cases.” It’s amazing.”
Unlike COVID-19, which usually does not cause serious illness in children, other respiratory viruses such as RSV are especially dangerous for young children and can lead to hospitalization and intensive care. Neither Connecticut Children’s Hospital nor Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital recorded any RSV-related deaths this year, officials said.
It’s not entirely clear why the respiratory virus spread much faster and more rapidly than usual, but experts say it’s a result of people losing immunity after two years of wearing masks and social distancing. He says there is a possibility.
“Many of these young children, infants, who were born during COVID and have been relatively isolated, so have not been exposed to some of these viruses that they are typically exposed to in their first year of life, are seeing them for the first time now. There are no existing antibodies,” said Bizzarro.
As various viruses surge, local and national officials are urging parents to vaccinate their children against the flu in hopes of easing the recent wave of illness. Less flu means he has one less thing to worry about at the local hospital, they say.
“As flu season begins to creep in, flu vaccination will become important,” Bizarro said. “Parents should keep in mind the fact that we are expecting a very serious flu season, and given the fact that hospitals are already very overcrowded, we should keep our children out of the hospital. Keeping them away is absolutely critical to their own health and the health of our families, the children we currently have to care for.
