Romania is hit during this period by a wave of flu and viruses, and children are the most affected. In the hallways of pediatric hospitals, you no longer have room to throw a needle, and waiting times are getting longer and longer. In polyclinics, the situation is not so worrying, but there is an explanation for this: when children start to feel sick, parents panic and take them directly to the emergency rooms. Only mild cases reach family doctors.
We have entered the season of respiratory viruses. Source: archive
We are in the middle of flu and virus season, and these ailments have sent children to the emergency rooms of hospitals in particular. The situation, doctors say, is all the more serious as the number of patients suffering from respiratory infections and pneumonia is 70% higher than the one recorded in the same period last year.
At the National Institute for Mother and Child Health in the Capital, the waiting room is crowded, and the waiting time until patients are taken over by a doctor is almost 5 hours. “Among those with a cold, at this moment the tests carried out show us that we are in the midst of an increase in the number of flu cases. There are a lot of children waiting”, said pediatrician Mihai Craiu. He stated that many of the confirmed cases of influenza are reported in the case of unvaccinated patients.
And the family doctors’ offices were crowded, although dr. Sandra Alexiu, the president of the Bucharest-Ilfov Family Physicians Association, told “Adevărul” that the number of patients affected by viruses who arrived at the office recently can be compared with last year. “It is normal what happens. It was to be expected because we are in the cold season when these conditions appear. Many patients with viruses and COVID have arrived at my office. I haven’t met anyone with the flu so far. I don’t know how things are in the hospital, but I haven’t had any serious cases at the office. We have had no patients with flu at all, instead there are many with respiratory viruses and COVID”.
Family doctor, about the “whooping cough virus”: “All viruses have a cough”
There is a rumor circulating among parents with small children at this time about an extremely aggressive virus that manifests itself in a persistent and exhausting cough, similar to whooping cough. We asked the doctor if we should be worried, and the answer reassured us: “There is no such thing. All seasonal viruses have a cough, because the virus is transmitted through the air and affects the respiratory tract. Children have pharyngitis, stuffy nose or rhinorrhea. And I’m coughing,” explained Sandra Alexiu.
Therefore, parents are most likely confusing the virus or flu with whooping cough, a vaccine-preventable disease caused by a bacterium, not a virus. Therefore, the virus is different from whooping cough, but also from the flu, and this can be noticed even by parents. The flu comes with symptoms such as muscle aches, headaches, fever, cough, sore throat, nausea and vomiting. “It is recommended to avoid crowding, to wash our hands, to wear a protective mask if we have symptoms”, Dr. advises us. Sandra Alexiu.
Over a million Romanians have been vaccinated against the flu
According to statistics, a little over 1 million people were vaccinated this cold season. CNAS fully settles the flu vaccine for children, pregnant women, adults over 45 with chronic diseases, but also for all people over 65. The rest, I can buy it for 70 lei from pharmacies.
