Doctors are warning of an outbreak of a potentially serious respiratory illness, RSV, which can cause pneumonia among children and is presently sending more children to Victorian hospitals than COVID19 or the flu. | TimnaJacks
Doctors are warning of an outbreak of a potentially serious respiratory illness that can cause pneumonia among children, and is presently responsible for more paediatric admissions to Victorian hospitals than COVID-19 or the flu.
The virus is now the top cause of paediatric hospital admissions at the Royal Children’s Hospital, with 40 per cent of diagnostic tests returning positive results for RSV compared to 11 per cent for COVID-19 and just 2 per cent for the flu. “Most children will be exposed to RSV and contract it before about the age of two, and that will give them some immunity for the future,” McNab said.“What we’re seeing is rather than having a year’s worth of children who haven’t been exposed to RSV, we’ve got 18 months’ worth of children who have never been exposed.
Anecdotally, it appeared many children were presenting with more serious symptoms than would usually be expected, McNab said. “It’s really climbing up this last month,” director of emergency medicine Dr Mark Putland said.“That’s a fairly steep jump from five to 50, and it’ll probably be 100 over three months.”With the Royal Children’s specialising in paediatric cases, the Royal Melbourne mostly sees cases of RSV in elderly patients, who are also vulnerable to severe symptoms and sometimes admitted to intensive care.
“There’s more circulating viruses because children are mixing so much more than they were during the last few years. And they are experiencing some challenges in accessing private primary care as we’re seeing throughout the system, particularly with infectious illnesses.”
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