The Australian flu arrived in Italy with high numbers and earlier than the season. According to the Influnet report of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità we are registering a peak which particularly affects children. It is a wave that first overwhelms the family pediatrician’s clinics and then the pediatric wards where hospitalizations are already starting to appear together with bronchiolitis from respiratory syncytial virus. Assessments on severity and outcomes as complications can be made in spring 2023, for now there is a strong increase in access to the pediatric emergency room for this pathology.
The onset symptoms are cough, cold, headache, muscle pain, it lasts a few days then resolves, with healing in 7-10 days, if complications such as ear infections, pneumonia, encephalitis, myocarditis do not appear. In younger children, signs of respiratory distress may appear with increased respiratory rate, lack of appetite, feeding difficulties and consequent general impairment. In these cases, hospitalization is required.
“Vaccination in childhood is important because it helps us reduce the circulation of the flu virus for the benefit of fragile subjects and the whole community, since children are the main driving force behind the infections, – says the head of Pediatrics and Neonatology Southern Area of the ASL Southeast Tuscany Susanna Falorni. – Vaccination is recommended for all children between 6 months and 6 years of age, those who have a chronic disease and those who don’t want to get sick. Parents are often skeptical because they say that despite the vaccine last year the child got sick anyway. It is important that they understand that the flu vaccine only prevents the flu, not all the other types of viruses that children and adults can get, and that there are around a hundred of them”.
“The flu is transmitted by droplets of saliva and respiratory secretions during sneezing and coughing, – continues Falorni. – The prevention of infections is important, and it is also done by teaching children to always cover their mouths when coughing and sneezing and to wash their hands or sanitize them after these episodes. It would be a good idea to ventilate closed environments and wear a mask whenever there are symptoms such as a cough or cold without fever for which normal daily activities are carried out. Other prevention rules are to avoid contact with adults or older siblings, if influenced, to avoid passive smoking which worsens all respiratory diseases and to continue breastfeeding in the infant, due to the protective role of mother’s milk “.
“The Covid pandemic period has taught everyone how important prevention rules are to reduce infections, – concludes Dr. Falorni, – these are always valid and if communities acquire them as a normal lifestyle we can best fight this epidemic and all those that will alternate over the years”.