The childhood diseases making a post-lockdown comeback
Getty ImagesRSV, Strep A, the flu: a range of familiar bugs are worrying doctors and parents with strange new patterns. What's behind the outbreaks?
As child after child gasping for air was itted to the hospital, Rabia Agha gritted her teeth. In her role as director of the paediatric infectious diseases division at Maimonides Children's Hospital in New York, she had seen this before. An outbreak of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – a winter virus that can feel like a common cold in adults, but which can be dangerous for some young children.
There was a wave last autumn – and an unexpected one in spring this year. Now, in the early autumn months of 2022, it was back again.
"We've had to double the capacity of our ICU," she says, referring to the intensive care unit, reserved for the sickest patients. Some of the children there have been put on mechanical ventilators to help them breathe.
RSV typically hits the youngest children hardest but the patients Agha and her colleagues have treated lately tend to be approaching school age, around three or four years old. In this age group, RSV would usually appear as a cold-like illness, with a runny nose and cough. But now, some of them were struggling.
How can we prevent childhood illnesses?
RSV, strep A (which can cause scarlet fever), the flu and other illnesses and infections are resurging among children, after having been mostly suppressed during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Here's what doctors and health authorities say parents can do to keep children safe and healthy in the winter.
The NHS and other health authorities recommend washing your hands with soap for 20 seconds to help stop the spread of viruses and bacteria, including strep A and RSV. They also recommend being careful not to share potentially contaminated cups, towels or other items.
Parents are advised to use tissues to help their children catch coughs or sneezes, then discard the used tissues as soon as possible and wash their hands with soap and warm water to stop the spread.
Making sure your children's vaccinations are up to date can also protect them from a wide range of diseases – including the flu and many highly contagious and potentially dangerous diseases such as measles and polio.
The step of giving preventative antibiotics, for example to protect children in the midst of a strep A outbreak at their school or nursery, needs to be carefully considered, doctors say, to avoid encouraging antibiotic resistance. Superbugs created by antibiotics overuse have posed a particular threat to newborns, highlighting the need to use antibiotics with caution. Plus, antibiotics have no effect on viruses such as RSV.
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