He hits hard, and doesn’t look anyone in the face. Not even the little ones: the seasonal flu, known this year as “Australian”, is affecting thousands and thousands of Paduans and in a serious way, to the point that three children were hospitalized in the pediatric intensive care unit of the Hospital of Padua.
Influenza
These numbers are provided by Professor Liviana Da Dalt, director of the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, who – interviewed by Antenna 3 – adds: «In the first two weeks of December we already have 25 hospitalizations in Pediatrics: we therefore already have surpassed in numerical terms those of the entire month of November, which means that we are witnessing an important surge». For the occasion, the “mobile clinics” used outside the pediatric emergency room in the first Covid waves were also reopened, so as to isolate affected children in the early stages of visits: it is not excluded that, should the cases increase further, others may be added as well. But why are children so affected? “Because they attend the community – explains Da Dalt – and are easily subject to these infections, especially if they are very small as they do not have a “flu memory” at the level of antibodies”.