Updated August 2nd, 2021 at 16:21 IST
US: Delta variant and respiratory virus infections rise among children, experts concerned
The lethal COVID contagion, with its multiple variants, has affected children across the world, disrupting their lives and jeopardizing their health.
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The lethal coronavirus contagion has affected children across the world, disrupting their lives and jeopardizing their health. While many countries have commenced vaccinating teens and young adults, the threat of Delta variant, according to experts, still remains nettlesome. In addendum, a new respiratory infection-RSV- is also wreaking havoc across the American territory.
What is RSV?
The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention describes Respiratory Syncytial Virus or RSV is a flu-like illness that is more likely to affect children and older people. The symptoms for the same encompass runny nose, coughing, sneezing, and fever. Usually, the infection spreads in the fall, however, its exacerbated transmissions during the summertime, especially in June and July, has left the experts concerned.
In a series of posts on Twitter, Dr. Heather Haq, a paediatrician at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, described an increase in both coronavirus and RSV hospitalizations. Haq is also the chief medical officer for the Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital. In one of her tweets, she even mentioned that COVID admissions in her medical centre are up 500 per cent and currently 80 per cent of cases in the hospital are due to the highly contagious Delta variant.
This year the virus made a resurgence in the summertime, when children’s hospitals have lighter staffing. We are now having winter-level patient volumes of acutely ill infants/toddlers with RSV and I worry that we will run out of beds and staff to handle the surge upon surge.
— Heather #Vaccinated Haq, MD, MHS, FAAP (@heather_haq) July 31, 2021
To help handle the predicted sustained increased patient volume and high acuity of cases, my pediatric colleagues and I are all being called to work mandatory overtime shifts in the coming months.
— Heather #Vaccinated Haq, MD, MHS, FAAP (@heather_haq) July 31, 2021
Some children admitted this time have co-infection with COVID plus other viruses such as RSV which could definitely make them sicker, we didn’t see much COVID/RSV co-infection during prior waves and we worry what this combination of viruses could look like.
— Heather #Vaccinated Haq, MD, MHS, FAAP (@heather_haq) July 31, 2021
Some children admitted this time have co-infection with COVID plus other viruses such as RSV which could definitely make them sicker, we didn’t see much COVID/RSV co-infection during prior waves and we worry what this combination of viruses could look like.
— Heather #Vaccinated Haq, MD, MHS, FAAP (@heather_haq) July 31, 2021
We continue to see sustained high volume of pediatric mental health crisis admissions, further contributing to the high patient volumes as psychiatric hospitals that accept children remain full.
— Heather #Vaccinated Haq, MD, MHS, FAAP (@heather_haq) July 31, 2021
Meanwhile, US top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci issued a dire warning on Sunday saying that more “pain and suffering” will be witnessed as coronavirus cases continue to rise across the United States fuelled by the highly contagious delta variant. Although, Fauci added that he doesn’t foresee more lockdowns in the US. Biden’s White House’s chief medical adviser said in his televised remarks, “So we’re looking, not, I believe, to lockdown, but we’re looking to some pain and suffering in the future because we’re seeing the cases go up, which is the reason why we keep saying over and over again, the solution to this is get vaccinated and this would not be happening.” Since the outbreak of pandemics in the United States, it has registered a total of 35,768,924 cases and 629,380 fataltiies, according to the latest tally by Worldometers.
Image: Pixabay
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Published August 2nd, 2021 at 16:21 IST
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