According to the Daily Mail, in Australia, intensive care units are facing a massive influx of newborn babies with no immune system to RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), responsible for bronchiolitis.
“Pandemic babies” and respiratory diseases: a disturbing phenomenon
A disturbing number of newborns without an immune system to respiratory viruses end up in the intensive care unit. According to some doctors, babies born during the Covid-19 pandemic require intensive care since they are “faced with viruses they had never encountered before”, such as flu, covid or RSV. The Daily Mail reports that the children were born and raised at a time when virtually no viruses were circulating in Australia.
According to infectious disease pediatrician Dr Philip Britton, an analysis of intensive care unit admissions reveals that babies are testing positive for flu and covid at the same time. Moreover, the doctor had informed the Daily Telegraph a little earlier that “over the past month, we have seen four times more hospital admissions for flu in children than for covid”.
Dr Britton said that 5% of children who present with “co-infections” were admitted to intensive care. According to him, this is a statistic “very worrying”. This is all the more worrying since nearly half of the children had no pre-existing health conditions.
Added to this is a high number of intensive care admissions which has put the hospital system under pressure.
“It’s something we’ve never seen before”
The “pandemic babies” have chest, brain and heart inflammation caused by flu, covid and RSV. The latter is one of the viruses responsible for bronchiolitis and pneumonia. If it is common and very contagious, which may require a visit to the emergency room or hospitalization, bronchiolitis is, in most cases, a mild illness. Also, the article highlights the spread of the virus throughout the country throughout the health crisis. The Australian researchers said “shocked” by the sudden increase in this disease during the first year of confinement: “It’s something we’ve never seen before”said infectious disease specialist Dr. John-Sebastian Eden.