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«Children without defenses, 80 cases a day for the flu»

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«Children without defenses, 80 cases a day for the flu»

The flu spreads like a flood and already 130,000 people from the Marches, according to estimates by the Influnet network, have been put to bed by an epidemic that this year is traveling six weeks earlier than the trends of previous years. Covid. It mainly affects children, with very high incidences. In the last week of monitoring in our region, 57.3 new cases were estimated for every thousand assisted by sentinel paediatricians in the 0-4 year range and 35 between 5 and 14 years. We talked about it with Dr. Elisabetta Fabiani, director of the emergency room of the Salesi maternal and child hospital in Ancona.

Doctor Fabiani, why are pediatric subjects the most exposed to Aussie?
“Because they have no immune memory. The little ones, but also their families, have spent the last two years without coming into contact with the most common influenza and parainfluenza viruses at this time of year. We experienced the Covid emergency between periods of lockdown or in any case social distancing, we protected ourselves with masks. Children born from 2019 onwards are as if they had lived in a bubble that protected them from the flu virus, which however has now returned to circulate very widely and finds virgin soil in the little ones to replicate, given that it is not opposed by immune defences, unless the children have not been vaccinated”.
What is the situation observed from the first line of the Salesi emergency room, between flu, Covid and respiratory syncytial virus?
«For almost six weeks now we have been witnessing an exponential trend in the accesses of small patients to our emergency room. Most children have fever, cold, cough and gastrointestinal symptoms. I would say that they have doubled and even tripled in certain time slots. We currently have about 100 daily accesses overall and 70-80% concern flu, respiratory or gastrointestinal problems, with some peaks during the weekend”.
Are the symptoms of the Australian immediately recognizable or are they confused with Covid?
«There are small nuances, but for the most part the symptoms are superimposable and Sars-Cov-2 also continues to circulate a lot. We don’t do targeted swabs on flu strains, but we have to do tests on Covid because in case of positivity isolation would be triggered. So we can assume, by exclusion, that in this phase out of 10 children who become infected with a respiratory virus, only one on average is positive for Sars-Cov-2, while 9 have caught the flu.
Are there cases of flu that require pediatric hospitalization for complications?
«In most cases no, but children under one year of age, especially in the first six months of life, are exposed to the risk of respiratory complications precisely due to their anatomical conformation. I am also thinking of the syncytial virus, which often causes bronchiolitis. In some cases the clinical picture can suddenly worsen and then hospital monitoring is needed ».
What do you recommend to parents of children who have not yet fallen ill with the flu? Am I still in time to vaccinate children so as not to spend the Christmas holidays in bed?
«We are now a bit late, because the antibody response takes about ten days after vaccination. But it is always strongly recommended to get vaccinated, because the effects of the epidemic are greatly reduced, both in terms of the incidence of cases and the symptomatic impact of the disease. For the little ones there are spray vaccines that are very effective. Certainly for the Christmas holidays we had to think about it before. Already from September-October we had evidence of an incoming flu epidemic and we immediately recommended vaccinating children and also family members in contact. Now, with indoor holiday-related gatherings, the spread of the epidemic will be even more intense. Better protect yourself.”

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