V In Germany, more and more children are being hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
This year, the virus appeared earlier than usual, and in some German provinces its spread is more widespread than ever. For example, in Bavaria, where the situation seems most serious, there are almost no vacant beds in pediatric hospitals.
“The good news is that there are no clinics that have declared a state of emergency that cannot cope with the situation,” Dominic Ewald, chairman of the Bavarian Union of Pediatricians, told DPA. “Deutsche Welle.”
The role of pandemic and lockdown
The trade union of pediatricians is not surprised by this development.
“We were expecting this wave. It was clear that now that the children have more contact with each other, when, for example, 3-year-olds go to kindergarten again and transmit infections, which did not happen during the lockdown, we will have three times more sick children out of the ordinary, ”Ewald points out.
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Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a disease of the respiratory tract,
which can affect adults as well. However, newborns, infants and young children are most affected. They can develop severe inflammation of the lungs.
According to the Robert Koch Institute, children with congenital heart disease who suffer from RSV have the highest risk of death – 5% of them die. 1% of cases of RSV in premature infants end fatally. And in children with RSV, in whom no increased risk has been identified, the mortality rate is 0.2%.
Especially after the end of the students’ summer vacation, the respiratory syncytial virus began to spread very quickly.
“Now we are adding the usual cold viruses, to which – in addition to RSV – we include various flu or rhinovirus infections. However, there is no reason to worry, because healthy children easily cope with the infection,” said Dr. Evald.
According to him, a problem can arise when a child is attacked by several viruses in a row, due to which his immune system is so weakened that he can no longer cope with the respiratory syncytial virus.
Doctors are guided by the symptoms
Because antibiotics do not help against viruses, doctors only treat the symptoms. If the disease is relatively mild, it often even goes unnoticed. That’s why many people have never heard of this virus, although it has been known for a long time. But it is also possible that the seemingly harmless cough may have serious consequences:
“It can be fatal if the infection causes changes in the lungs that lead to long-term consequences,” says Ewald. Affected people may later develop asthma or bronchial hypersensitivity, he added.
Where the clinics are full
In the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the number of cases of RSV is high.
“The pediatric wards are completely filled with patients with RSV,” said Wolfgang Schutte, president of the Union of Hospitals in the province.
In some places there is not even a single free bed. In Northeast Germany, too, many children’s hospitals have seen an increase in RSV patients up to 4 years of age.
In the words of Dr. Claudius Werner, a pediatrician from Schwerin, “at the moment we really have a lot more severe infections in children aged 1-2 years than in previous years.” For now, however, there is no danger of overloading pediatric clinics.
And in the most populous German state – North Rhine-Westphalia – the picture is not much different. There, health authorities register a higher number of young patients admitted to hospital with respiratory diseases.
