DECEMBER 1, 2022 - The epidemic of respiratory illness affecting America's youngest children continues unabated. Pediatric wards across the country are signaling a crisis as beds reach capacity, the number of child deaths has soared over the past week, and sometimes children are infected with more than one virus at once.
In Oregon, for example, the governor announced an official state of emergency to help hospitals deal with a respiratory virus outbreak. Her Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, which houses half of the nation's pediatric ICU beds, has entered ''crisis mode'' and said all pediatric ICU beds are full, he reported Oregon Public Broadcasting. Last month, pediatricians across the country called on the federal government to declare a similar state of emergency in response to a surge in illnesses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
His Oscar G. Gómez-Duarte, an expert in pediatric infectious diseases, said: Press release.
Five more childhood flu deaths were recorded by the CDC last week, bringing the total number of childhood flu deaths this season to 12. , which is twice the rate for children aged 5 to 17. Last year, fewer than 1 in 100,000 children under the age of 4 were hospitalized with the flu at this time.
The RSV rate is also surprisingly high.
''If you look at the CDC data, his RSV hospitalization rate at this point in the season is 10 times his normal rate,'' said Andrea Garcia, JD, vice president of the American Medical Association, this week. said on his AMA podcast. “And in the week ending November 12, 171 of 100,000 infants under 6 months of age were hospitalized with RSV. That's seven times the rate in 2018, the last full season.''
According to Gómez-Duarte, the hospital accepts children with respiratory diseases. “Yes, some children have so-called co-infections, where they are infected with more than one virus at once. In some cases, children get the flu first, start recovering, and then rhinovirus (a common flu virus). ''These co-infections tend to be more severe than if a child had a single infection.''