This year the flu arrived earlier than usual, after about two years in which it had “disappeared” as a reflection of the anti-covid restrictions. A partially predictable situation, linked to the lack of widespread immunity caused by two years of social distancing, as we have explained here. “With the Australian flu it will be a tough season,” said Fabrizio Pregliasco, associate professor of general and applied hygiene at the University of Milan. There are already many Italians at home with fever, colds and other symptoms, but the peak – according to the expert – will arrive at Christmas, when we will have “about 250,000 cases a day”. The flu is affecting children more, above all because the little ones, especially from 0 to 2 years of age, have never encountered these viruses. But what are the symptoms in children and when is it necessary to go to the emergency room? A picture is drawn by Elena Bozzola, secretary and national councilor of the Italian society of paediatrics (Sip). Here’s everything you need to know.
“We see many children going to the emergency room. The characteristic of this flu symptomatology is a high fever, higher than 38 degrees, with peaks of even 39-40, and this scares the parents a lot. Then this irritating cough arises, which can last even 2 or more weeks – says the expert -. So even the fact that the cough does not go away is an additional reason for alerting parents who tend to go to the pediatrician again. And for a single flu symptomatology there is no more only one access, but repeated accesses to medical care, whether it is in the outpatient clinic or in the emergency room”. There are cases in which it is important to go to the emergency room and cases in which “the ideal would be to contact your pediatrician. Because in the emergency room, inevitably, in these intense days in which there are so many children with symptoms, and long queues”, specified Elena Bozzola.
Influenza in children: the red lights to watch out for
When to be alarmed? Under 3 months of life, when fever appears, there are “red lights” to keep an eye on, explains the infectious disease pediatrician: “When the child has breathing difficulties, you can see the chest moving like an accordion and at the level of the jugular , we see that the dimple at the base of the neck rises and falls, and there is a breathing of the nasal fins, i.e. the two nostrils also move, because it is as if the baby were unable to breathe: it uses all the accessory muscles to to do it”.
Australian flu: symptoms, peak at Christmas and how to treat it
The respiratory virus season is “early and intense” this year. The picture, explains the expert, is “homogeneous throughout Italy, with some variability from region to region and from hospital to hospital. But we are all witnessing an increase in symptoms especially in the last week, with data also confirmed by the Influnet bulletin “, which show that “especially the under 5s, and in particular children under 2 years old”, are under attack, a range in which “from one week to the next there has been a drop from 29 cases out of a thousand assisted to over 40 out of a thousand “.
The respiratory syncytial virus
And there’s not just the flu: “There’s a whole series of other viruses that then walk together. And we happen to see children who have not just one, but more viruses, which obviously get stronger together – explains the pediatrician – These are co-infections of the flu virus with rhinovirus and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus, ed.) which strike at the same time or at a short distance and the presence of more germs is found in the baby’s nasal aspirate. Attention”.
Respiratory syncytial virus is also a concern: it is the main cause of bronchiolitis, a lung infection that can be serious in the first year of life. “Probably what happened last year with a greater circulation of the RSV was not enough to fill the immunity debt – explains the expert -. As much as it spread in the pediatric population in the previous season, evidently there there is still a long way to go and the accesses to clinics and emergency rooms demonstrate it “.
In the children’s wards, respiratory viruses are the masters: in pediatric admissions “9 times out of 10 the pathology is respiratory, in recent weeks it is the main problem. And a good percentage of hospitalized cases is precisely linked to the respiratory syncytial virus. They are especially very young children, under 2 years of age and in particular under one year of life, who need supplements to breathe”. And the covid? “At this moment the other respiratory viruses have had the upper hand in our hospitalized children. But obviously we cannot say that the covid has disappeared. Of course the situation is different from last year, in which many pediatric wards had been converted into covid wards “, concludes the pediatrician.
(Source: Today)