Babies and young children are bearing the brunt of a rough respiratory season, with cases of RSV, parechovirus and other infectious diseases skyrocketing.
Some babies need help breathing when they have RSV. It is the leading cause of hospitalization in children under the age of 1 year. Business Wire via Associated Press, Seattle Children’s
Doctors, nurses and epidemiologists say there are several things at play that are contributing to the great viral soup – and they’re afraid to dismiss them with a simple explanation like a so-called “immunity debt” caused by social isolation during COVID-19 is. 19 pandemic.
dr William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says there’s more of an “exposure guilt” at work, not immunity guilt, meaning that many children who haven’t caught many common childhood diseases for two years are now all infected with it.
“Children’s immune systems are fine,” Schaffner said during a recent press conference held by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “Now that they’re exposed, they have to deal with this virus and the virus has many more opportunities to spread.”
As many different viruses and bacteria spread simultaneously among children of all ages, this leads to drug shortages, long waits for care and a cascade of sick children – and parents.
“It happens every season with respiratory viruses,” said Dr. Flores. “But this season was a bit more intense.”
Infectious disease experts like Flores are notoriously cautious about making specific predictions about what seasonal viruses will do in 2023, but it’s likely that we’ll see more winter diseases at least for the next few months. Most viral diseases, including influenza and RSV, peak between December and February each year.
Flores also said drug shortages for drugs like Tylenol for children and amoxicillin could last into the spring.