The number of children who presented to emergency departments respiratory illness climbed steeply in the holiday period – and is unlikely to slow down soon.
A wave of respiratory illnesses spreading among young people has helped drive a surge in school-age children with pneumonia presenting to emergency departments in NSW.
The number of presentations dipped at the start of February, but remained more than double that for the same month in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Infectious diseases expert Robert Booy said the surge in mycoplasma pneumonia among school-age children in the United States, Europe and Asia had likely spread to Australia via travellers during the holiday period.The honorary professor at the University of Sydney said a whooping cough outbreak that had gathered pace in October and November had also likely contributed to the spike in pneumonia cases. It was Australia’s first outbreak in about eight years.
Dr Anju Aggarwal, who is deputy chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners NSW/ACT branch, has noticed an increase in the number of children treated at her Sydney general practice who had previously been admitted to hospital for pneumonia since December. “COVID-19 and public health responses have been associated with disruptions in the usual seasonal patterns of respiratory infections in children, including RSV and mycoplasma pneumonia in Australia and around the world. These effects have not yet completely ‘washed out’.““Often when kids go back to school we see surges in a number of infections, including viruses and bacteria, so chicken pox and pneumonia become more common.