A disturbing number of “pandemic newborns” who lack immunity to respiratory infections wind up in the intensive care unit (ICU) in critical condition.
Children born during the Covid-19 pandemic are in need of intensive care since they are coming into contact with viruses including influenza, RSV, and Covid that they have never seen before, according to doctors.
The children were born and raised in an era when Covid-19 was essentially the only virus present in Australia.
Dr. Philip Britton, an infectious diseases pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, said a study of ICU admissions nationwide reveals infants are testing positive for both Covid and influenza at the same time.
Dr. Britton told The Daily Telegraph, “Over the last month or so, we have had four times the admissions to hospital for flu in youngsters as for Covid.”
Dr. Britton added that 5% of the kids who presented with co-infections were being admitted to the intensive care unit, a statistic he called “extremely alarming.”
Because of the large number of admissions, the hospital system is under pressure even though about half of the youngsters did not have any pre-existing medical issues.
Some of the so-called “pandemic newborns” exhibit chest, brain, and heart inflammation brought on by influenza, Covid, and RSV.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children, which can be very hazardous in newborns.
In babies and young children, whose tiny airways have not yet fully developed and who struggle to deal with the infection, severe cases can be fatal.
“Among those who were previously healthy… According to Dr. Britton, the flu can harm the heart and the brain in some of these kids, so it’s not only a chest illness.
When there were only 355 instances per week of RSV in NSW three weeks ago, a warning was issued concerning the disease. Three weeks later, the number of cases has exploded to 3,775 per week.
A quarter of them experienced the potentially fatal bronchiolitis, and 40% of them required hospitalization.
Dr. John-Sebastian Eden, an expert on infectious diseases, claimed that the triple combination of RSV, flu, and Covid was clogging up the emergency room at Sydney’s Westmead Children’s Hospital.
He told Daily Mail Australia that a large three-way outbreak was currently in progress.
With the opening of international borders, the flu and novel RSV strains have returned.
These are the three primary viruses that will require hospitalization, with Covid stacked on top.
Following Western Australia’s protracted isolation under Covid, RSV spread further and separated into two distinct strains in the east and west of the nation.
The dramatic surge in the disease during the first year of lockdowns, which was fueled by keeping childcare facilities open despite Covid restrictions, astounded researchers.
Dr. Eden remarked, “It was something we had never seen before.” There was a lot of work done to maintain childcare available, even throughout the lockdown.
It takes very little virus to start a chain of transmission, according to this statement.
After declining in 2021, the illness has since reemerged with the current outbreak.
Dr. Eden anticipates the outbreak spreading across the country but believes the number of cases in NSW have not yet peaked.
Across the upcoming weeks, he anticipates a similar rate of illness transmission in the southern half of the country.
“What occurs is that when there is an outbreak in NSW and we have so many people traveling from there to other states, it then feeds outbreaks in other places,” he explained.
After declining in 2021, the illness has since reemerged with the current outbreak.
Dr. Eden anticipates the outbreak spreading across the country but believes the number of cases in NSW have not yet peaked.
Across the upcoming weeks, he anticipates a similar rate of illness transmission in the southern half of the country.
“What occurs is that when there is an outbreak in NSW and we have so many people traveling from there to other states, it then feeds outbreaks in other places,” he explained.