Loss of appetite and difficulty in breathing are typical of the severe forms caused by the syncytial virus. Which also causes a dry cough similar to that of Covid
a few hours ago the green light of the FDA (Food and drug administration) for the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 5 to 11
, with a reduced dose (one third of that for adults) and two injections three weeks apart. A decision that affects about 28 million young Americans: if confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the vaccination campaign can begin within a few days. An awaited news, and welcomed with joy by a large part of the scientific community, given that the Delta variant is driving a sustained increase in infections, in which children under 12 (hitherto unvaccinable in most parts of the world, with the exception of Israel) play an important role. After the green light from the FDA, the EMA, the European Medicines Agency, and the Italian Aifa could soon arrive.
The respiratory syncytial virus
But the arrival of cold weather, together with the total resumption of activities and the reopening of schools in the presence, has also meant a boom in non-Covid diseases. From the common cold and cough, to the flu (often indistinguishable from Covid), to the respiratory syncytial virus, which is also mentioned due to the hospitalization of the daughter of Chiara Ferragni and Fedez. Respiratory virus epidemic in newborns: full Italian hospitals. If you have small children, be careful, I recommend the rapper wrote on Instagram. The syncytial virus (Rsv, respiratory syncytial virus) the first cause of childhood bronchiolitis and pneumonia and responsible for the greatest number of hospitalizations under one year of age (including in intensive care). Every autumn this virus arrives which fills the pediatric wards and constitutes a considerable danger for the weakest children. Unfortunately we don’t have an effective vaccine yet, wrote the virologist Roberto Burioni su Twitter.
Less immunity was created last year
According to a study recently published in Nature measles, pneumonia, meningitis, flu, apparently disappeared last winter thanks to anti-Covid measures, could come back with a rebound in the coming months. As well as the syncytial virus: after historic lows during the pandemic, cases began to rise in April of this year. Off-season peaks were observed in the US, Japan, Australia and the Netherlands. There is a difference compared to past years – he explains Fabio Mosca, director of the Department for women, children and newborns of the Policlinico di Milano and past president of the Italian Society of Neonatology -: the syncytial virus, which is seasonal, usually struck from November to April, with a peak in January-February. This year it started to spread more than a month earlier, so we have more cases and with a good advance. Last year the pathogen did not circulate due to lockdowns, masks, closed kindergartens: less circulation has resulted in less immunity being created. Now the virus has found more fertile ground precisely because there are fewer defenses.
The only prevention: hygiene rules
The round of this linear virus – continues the neonatologist -: the typical case is that of the child who goes to kindergarten, returns home with a cold and infects his 2-month-old sister. He gets a little cough, fever and cold, his little sister develops bronchiolitis and needs the hospital. But an adult who has a cold can also be the cause of the infection in the youngest child. At the moment the only prevention is the hygiene rules: avoid that a small child comes into contact at close range, less than the usual meter and a half that we have come to know, with older children or with adults.
Loss of appetite, difficulty in breathing and shortness of breath
Is it possible to distinguish the respiratory syncytial virus from Covid? As the Italian Society of Pediatrics explains, the syncytial virus usually causes colds (a possible sign of coronavirus infection as well), but especially in the first months of life, RSV can reach the lower airways and lungs causing acute bronchiolitis or pneumonia. The warning signs are precise: loss of appetite, difficulty in breathing and shortness of breath. Reduction in nutrition is the first sign that the child is getting worse and often the main cause of hospitalization; then episodes of apnea (moments of interruption of breathing), difficulty in breathing, retracting thorax and jugule (the dimple between the neck and the sternum is more marked) may appear. In general, the symptoms of respiratory syncytial virus are similar to those of other viral respiratory infections: runny nose (runny nose), dry and irritating cough and fever (in most cases not high). Loss of appetite and respiratory distress, which indicate worsening, may appear 3-5 days after the onset of symptoms.
Covid cough similar to that caused by Rsv
How to understand instead if a child could have contracted the Sars-CoV-2 infection? it is often difficult to distinguish it from a flu or a cold because the symptoms can be very similar. A certain diagnosis can only be made by performing a swab. Furthermore, infected children are often asymptomatic. In case of a cold accompanied by a stuffy or runny nose and a few coughs or sore throats without other symptoms, such as gastrointestinal upset, we are almost certainly facing a seasonal cold. Gianvincenzo Zuccotti, director of the Pediatrics department at the Buzzi hospital in Milan. When the child has more than one symptom, the presence of Sars-CoV-2 can be suspected: If a fever over 37.5 and possibly gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea are added to the cold then it is legitimate to suspect a case of Covid adds the pediatrician. Plus cough from Covid generally dry, angry and insistent, similar to that caused by asthma: but a cough of this type can also be caused by the respiratory syncytial virus. In such cases, especially if the child is small, it is necessary to consult a doctor to arrive at a precise diagnosis.
October 30, 2021 (change October 30, 2021 | 18:58)
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