A big question is what does this new pattern mean for the coming months. A summer wave does not necessarily mean that there are no more cases in which the weather becomes cold. And in some areas, cases are only starting to rise now, in early fall.
“The RSV and the bronchiolitis it causes are definitely the most important thing children’s hospitals are currently planning, waiting, starting to see and caring,” says Sophia Varadkar, deputy medical director and pediatric neurologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital. for children in London.
At his hospital, cases have begun to rise and he hopes to see more in the coming weeks. For those caring for babies, RSV may be a bigger concern than Covid-19, says Varadkar. “Covid for children, in general, was not a significant disease. It did not cause much discomfort to many children. RSV is a potentially larger disease. [affecting] many more children, and we definitely know it can cause discomfort to these little babies, ”she says.
With the reopening of schools, viruses like RSV will have more opportunities to spread. But adult behavior can be even more crucial. In Switzerland, nurseries and playgroups remained open throughout the winter and young children did not wear masks. However, almost no children suffered from viral infections such as RSV and the flu that winter, probably because adult hygiene measures helped protect them.
“People always say kids infect adults, but if we think about it, that wasn’t the case here, it was the other way around,” Berger says. “When adults and older children wear masks, observe social distancing and wash their hands, we don’t see flu or RSV. And when measures loosen, the virus circulates again and more young children end up in the hospital.”