Pediatrician and immunologist Miloš Jeseňák points out that when confronted with classic viruses such as rhinoviruses or adenoviruses, children do not develop long-term defensive immunity, a memory trace, therefore it is not even possible to expect that if a kindergarten teacher transmits diseases to a younger sibling, the latter after entering kindergarten will be more durable.
You will learn more in the interview:
why young children are often sick; what immune preparations help; whether immunity can be trained like a muscle; where we have a “zoo” everywhere in the body.
Many parents rejoice that summer has begun, morbidity will finally decrease, is it really so?
Basically yes, because infectious diseases are more common in transitional periods, although last summer was specific. But in general, you should be more concerned about various intestinal viruses and bacterial infections.
You say that last summer was special. What caused it?
The flu season has been unusually extended throughout Europe until the beginning of summer. There are several explanations. The reason may be that various measures were canceled shortly before and children returned to school and preschool collectives. We know that even overcoming covid itself has a negative effect on immunity, which can subsequently be weakened after the disease and reacts worse to other viruses.
Some claim that it was the long-term isolation that caused the collective immunity to weaken. Could this also be the reason?
The immune system is not like a muscle that needs to be trained all the time and if you don’t train it, it immediately stops working.
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