During this period, children’s hospitals in Bucharest and the country are archiplines with patients. But almost no one has Covid, says doctor Mihai Craiu. “S.butter days with zero cases of illness with Covid. Even so, in the case of children with acute feverish disease and new respiratory problems we do combined detection tests: flu, SARS-COV-2 and respiratory syncytial virus (VSR) ”, shows the expert.
The syncytial respiratory virus mainly affects young children. Archive
At the Institute for the Health of the Mother and Child “Alessandrescu Rusescu” in Bucharest most of the hospitalized patients are infected with the syncytial respiratory virus.
Very very young children are mainly concerned, in which the disease has an increased degree of severity. “However, we still have an impressive number of cases of influenza disease”, warns the doctor Mihai Craiu. He said that at the hospital it is presented in one night and up to 200 patients suffering from respiratory diseases. Of these, almost half come with fever and come out positive on the flu. “Somewhere between 33 and 50% of the tests done in a guard, we are talking about 80-100 tests, they are positive on the flu.” During this period the circus circulates the influenza B.
In the third place in the ranking of seasonal diseases circulating during this period is metapneumovirus. “At the Guard Report from Thursday night to Friday there were four positive cases. It is a virus as old and well -known as possible. The first description was made in 2001 by a collective of pediatricians in the Netherlands. And since then, the winter is still being followed ”, explains the specialist.
As for the number of cases of Covid, it is extremely small. “There are whole days with zero cases of illness with Covid. Even so, in children with acute feverish disease and new respiratory problems we do combined detection tests: flu, SARS-COV-2 and respiratory syncytial virus (VSR). This, in the idea of separating patients on epidemiological criteria. Let’s not put in the same salon a child with flu with one with Covid. But fortunately, every week we have Covid cases to count them on the fingers of one hand. I am close to disappearing ”, the doctor continues. “However, we also have rhinoviruses that circulate during this period, which give the usual gut and are very contagious ”, told the “Adevărul” family doctor Sandra Alexiu.
Mihai Craiu, pediatric doctor. Archive
Metapneumovirus, among the most harmless. Doctor: “Give us a regular cold”
The symptoms of these respiratory diseases are different depending on the virus we are infected with, depending on how well we are in terms of immunity, depending on age and other diseases that we suffer or not.
By far, the most harmless virus is metapneumovirus, the one that gives us the common cold. “There are combined tests that we use for children and including this virus. For it is in the third place in the top of those who haunt these days ”, explains Dr. Mihai Craiu. The disease, he continues, resembles a regular cold. “It has no clinical criterion of severity in the young child. If I have the dose of metapneumovirus antibodies, we would see that 90% of 5 -year -olds have already had this infection. ”
Unlike, the flu comes to the pack with noisy symptoms. “The flu is fast and furious. In the morning you took the baby to the nursery, and at noon you receive a phone and you are told to take it that it has 40 degrees. ”
Symptoms include clogged nose, headaches, muscle pain, lack of appetite, dizziness, you upset light, noises, you are beaten. “There are also symptoms that induce parents error. There are all kinds of manifestations. For example, almost a quarter of the sick children can suffer at the onset of the disease only vomiting and diarrhea. You would say that it is a very noisy enterocolitis with high fever, but it is not ”explains the doctor.
Family doctor: “The syncytial respiratory virus affects the whole lung and can kill”
The syncytial respiratory virus is even more dangerous, because it can seriously affect the lungs. “Can lead to interstitial pneumonia. Basically, it affects the whole lung, it does not allow it to expand, and the patient can no longer breathe. The lung is filled with water, the man makes respiratory failure ”, Sandra Alexiu also told us.
If it gets sick, a small child can develop bronchiolitis. “It is an extremely serious condition, leads to respiratory failure and even death. And the children who make recurrent forms, get sick four, five times until the age of one year remain with sensitivities. Asthma, for example ”, continues the specialist. “And the symptoms are very tormenting. The patient can cough up to a month ”, she says.
When we should go with the child to the emergency. Five signs his condition is serious
With a sick child we should first of all introduce ourselves to the family doctor for diagnosis and treatment. However, there are cases when the disease is serious and there is no time to waste. Then it’s time to go straight to the hospital. But how do we know if the child really is in imminent danger? There are five signs that parents can follow in terms of the physical condition of the little one, explains the doctor Mihai Craiu. “A baby who cannot be awakened to give him the bottle, a larger schoolboy that you cannot get out of bed, even if you use a higher tone … there should be signs that things are serious. The alteration of the state of consciousness must send you with the child to the guard room ”.
The second thing we need to follow are seizures. “Those uncontrolled spasmodic movements that cannot be stopped with the parent’s hand. The third sign appears when the child cannot receive fluids as he needs. That is, the exits are greater than the entrances. Whether spilled or has diarrhea ”, continues the doctor Craiu.
I would have the fourth sign that the situation is serious is the difficult breathing of the child. “This means over 60 breaths per minute in the small baby, until two months, ie once a second. In the child up to a year, over 50 per minute and the child between one and five over 40 per minute. There are landmarks of an inefficient breath whether or not the little one has a fever. ”
Last but not least, parents must observe the color of the skin, the skin of the child. “Cyanosis can be installed, that is to say, the lips, tongue, nails.” If we do not notice any of these five signs, then the child can be taken to the family doctor and until then as well as possible.
What do we do when the child has high fever and does not decrease
First, the child’s fever should be measured correctly. We do not just put our hand on his forehead or touch his skin with his lips, as some parents do. “We should not use those thermometers with which we are taken, adults, temperature through malls, during the pandemic ”, explains the doctor Mihai Craiu. “These devices are imprecise. As well as the thermometer pacifiers. There are many parents who buy them because on the one hand they resemble the pacifier that calms the child, on the other hand the detection time is short ”. The problem, the specialist continues, is that this pacifier with the thermometer indicates a lower body temperature. “It is like when we get out of the shower and it is the open window. The air currents that come into contact with a wet surface decrease the temperature of that surface ”.
Parents of young children should use the ear or electronic rectal thermometer with flexible head. Then they must follow the general condition of the child. “If he to play beautifully with his ordinary games or he likes to follow us, to climb the slide or to do his lessons is not a reason for panic, especially if there is no family history of febrile convulsions ” Dr. Mihai Craiu continues.
Otherwise things are in the case of a child with very high fever, with the red body that dies. “Here would be the packaging or the hypothermizing bath. Because the blood that cools into the tegument will return a little colder in the central circulation ”. In the case of children who have hot head but have cold hands and feet and skin, as if they were cold, they should benefit from a rub.
Sandra Alexiu, family doctor. Archive
Family doctor: “In Romania a new vaccine against the syncytial respiratory virus appeared”
As a prevention measure, doctors recommend vaccination against influenza, but also against syncytial respiratory virus. “There is a new vaccine on the market and newly registered in Romania that prevents VSR disease. It is quite expensive, it reaches up to 1,100 lei. It is also the reason why not everyone allows it. But who can buy it should do it. Especially pregnant women, who will immunize them, but will also immunize their child. Also, the vaccine should be deepened to elderly patients, who risk making serious forms of the disease ”, explains Dr. Sandra Alexiu.
However, in addition to this vaccine, there is also the possibility of administering antibodies in the case of premature children. “Prepared antibodies that are administered intramuscular once a month ”, says the specialist. Obviously, we have to wash our hands as often as possible, avoid the communities where they are cool people, we must wear a protective mask if we are sick, cough and sneeze in the handkerchief.
“If there are no one of the five general signs of danger that will send you to the hospital, the priority in acute respiratory diseases with fever remains hydration,” explains the doctor Mihai Craiu. “Because the main mechanism of cooling of the body is perspiration. We lose warmth by sweating or vaporizing the saliva. We breathe faster and lose by convection. So we lose a lot. We must not forget that before any kind of doctor, the priority is to be hydrated ”, he says.
