The start of the school year is approaching, but parents have not finished reconciling telework and children at home. As cold and flu season approaches, babies with just one symptom of coronavirus – even a simple sore throat – will have to stay home.
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While the measurement may seem overkill – after all, preschoolers are always sick, that does not mean they have the coronavirus – it is unfortunately necessary in the context of the pandemic.
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“We don’t have much choice. The difficulty with COVID is that it presents itself almost any way, especially in the little ones, ”explains Dr. Caroline Quach, pediatrician, microbiologist-infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at CHU Sainte-Justine.
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CHU Sainte-Justine
Dr Caroline Quach is a pediatrician, microbiologist-infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist. She acts as the physician responsible for the infection prevention and control unit at CHU Sainte-Justine.
Thus, a child with the disease could very well only have a runny nose and itchy throat, she illustrates. For other children, the coronavirus masquerades as gastrointestinal, causing fever, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
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“We are not able, by looking at a child, to say if it is COVID or not,” says Dr. Quach.
This is why the Ministère de la Famille asks daycare services to exclude children as soon as they show any of the following symptoms:
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Cough (new or worse)
Fever (rectal temperature 38 ° C and higher or 1.1 ° higher than the child’s usual temperature)
Sudden loss of smell without nasal congestion, with or without loss of taste
Difficulty breathing
Generalized muscle pain unrelated to physical exertion
Fatigue intense
Significant loss of appetite
Sore throat
Vomiting
Diarrhea
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Children who live with someone who has been diagnosed positive with COVID-19 or who is waiting for a result and has symptoms also cannot attend child care. If the relative awaiting a result has no symptoms, the child may still be admitted.
Contacted several times by the HuffPost Quebec, the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) had not yet specified Thursday whether a single symptom will represent a reason for exclusion from school, as is the case for daycare services.
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Repeated tests?
As virus season approaches, many parents are worried about having their child undergo the unpleasant COVID-19 test repeatedly, noted Dr. Quach.
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The test, which requires the insertion of a swab through the nose to the nasopharynx, is “not super pleasant,” she agrees.
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“I know that there are parents who say to themselves: ‘my child will not take it 10 times’ and I understand them.”
– Dre Caroline Quach
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Fortunately, there is no need to rush to the screening clinic every time our child sniffles.
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If symptoms are present, the child should be kept at home, of course, but not necessarily given a screening test.
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“We can wait 24 hours to see how it’s going,” suggests Dr. Quach. “If the next day he breaks out, we send him back to school.”
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However, if the symptoms persist and worry us at all, it is better to call the Info-coronavirus line of the government of Quebec, by dialing 1 877 644-4545. And yes, it is quite possible that we will then be recommended for screening.
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Glimmer of hope
The news is not all bad. We can console ourselves by saying that the health measures put in place to stem the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to harm other microbes that like to roam around daycares and classes in winter.
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In the countries of the southern hemisphere, where winter is drawing to its end, we have almost succeeded in eradicating the flu this year. Australian authorities report, for example, a “substantial drop” in the number of influenza cases reported by laboratories in the country since mid-March. Alone 36 influenza deaths were recorded, against 430 for the same period last year.
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«It means that when you keep your distance, wear a mask and wash your hands, there is less transmission of other viruses.Says Dr. Quach.
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She notes, however, that the enterovirus rhinovirus, responsible for “minor colds”, seems to be an exception to this rule. “We saw that even here. This is probably what caused some fevers in the day camps this summer, ”she said.
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The reduction in the transmission of other viruses could therefore offer parents a little respite, even if “we will probably not be able to eliminate them all”, admits Dr. Quach.
Germ season may be a headache for working parents this year.
We must therefore expect a cold season “much more complicated than in past years,” confirms the specialist in infection control. Employers will need to be flexible with parents who are doomed to be stuck at home at times because their children can’t go to school or daycare, she warns.
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«It’s part of the deal for this year. But for me, it’s better to get a child tested for symptoms before he returns than to let him go to daycare, which he passes on. [la maladie] and that we have to close a class for two weeks. “
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Put it like that, many parents will probably agree.
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