Two near-zero pediatric viruses, “good side effects of COVID-19,” according to Utah pediatricians

According to a leading Utah pediatrician, two diseases that will hit children in the winter, pediatric flu and RSV, are virtually nonexistent this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bad news: Both may come back with revenge next year.

Dr. Andrew Pavia, Dean of Epidemiology at Primary Children and Head of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University, said at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, doctors have not hospitalized children with RSV this season. Of Utah Health.

According to Pavia, 80 children are admitted to RSV’s primary children each week most years, and one-third of them need to be in the intensive care unit.

Regarding influenza, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported about 1,400 cases of childhood influenza nationwide, Pavia said. On average, that number “is in the range of 500,000,” he said.

“I’ve seen something I’ve never seen in the last 35 years,” Pavia said Monday at Intermountain Healthcare’s weekly community coronavirus briefing on Facebook Live. “This is really, really, one of the good side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Pavia said some of the reduction in influenza may be due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, as influenza strains are usually carried by people traveling from other countries. Pavia added that masks, hand washing, and social distance are known to reduce the spread of influenza. Taking public health measures for COVID-19 is “a natural experiment we manage. [the flu] It’s really dramatic, “Pavia said.

The reduction in RSV, which represents the respiratory syncytial virus, is “slightly complex,” Pavia said. The main symptom of RSV is runny nose, and nasal discharge is the main way the virus spreads. Therefore, masks and hand washing may limit the movement of these secretions.

Children under the age of three, who are most susceptible to RSV, do not get together much during the pandemic and have fewer play days and day care visits, Pavia said. He also said that older siblings studying online or having less days in face-to-face school did not bring so many viruses home.

According to Pavia, all the reasons for the decrease in the number of RSVs are explained, but the reasons for “substantially zero nationwide” are not explained.

An expert in theory argues, but there is still little evidence to support it, but Pavia states: And when one virus dominates the jungle, it essentially kicks out all the other animals. … Viruses have these strange interactions that we don’t fully understand. “

These low rates of influenza and RSV are unlikely to continue until next year, Pavia said.

“If both flu and RSV are separated for some time, it’s 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 illnesses.”

According to Pavia, the incidence of influenza tends to fluctuate, often with mild years followed by severe years. RSV, on the other hand, “relies heavily on giving birth to new babies who are completely susceptible to RSV each year. In Utah, this is another 50,000 hosts suitable for the virus to attack. This year. , There are babies who have never seen RSV all year round, so next year we will double the number of naive babies who are susceptible to it. “

Doctors in Western Australia noticed that RSV was almost non-existent in the southern hemisphere winters of June and July, but the country curbed the spread of COVID-19. Recently, doctors saw a surge in RSV in the summer of Australia as COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed.

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