“With the return of children to school we expect an increase in flu cases even if, it must be said, during the holiday period there was no decline in infections, probably due to the social life opportunities during the holidays. Furthermore, we are at the height of the respiratory syncytial virus. It is important that children who have flu symptoms stay at home.” Thus to ANSA Rino Agostiniani, national councilor of the Italian Society of Paediatrics.
Despite the strong intensity of the season, “what we are seeing is not a ‘super-flu”, specifies Agostiniani.
“The measures put in place to reduce contagion during the pandemic have also worked for influenza viruses. Now that the measures are less stringent, we once again have a major flu epidemic which mainly affects younger children, who are those in the in recent years they have not developed an immune system to defend themselves from infection”.
In recent weeks we are approaching the peak, however, underlines the pediatrician, “even if infections begin to decline, we will have to live with the flu epidemic until March, as happened before the pandemic”.
To avoid spreading the infection, it is important to avoid bringing children with symptoms to school. Equally important, for children, “is not to rush to send them back to school when they have recovered. I understand that there are organizational needs for families, however, when you get sick you go into a state of depression in the immune system. Report putting the child at school too early means exposing him to an increased risk of contracting new infections”, concludes Agostiniani.
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