The data of the latest Influnet report “confirm that also in Italy as in the rest of Europe we are registering a peak” of influenza “which particularly affects children, to which is added bronchiolitis from respiratory syncytial virus”. This was underlined to Adnkronos Salute by Mariano Magrì, pediatrician in the Prevention department of ASL Lecce. “It is a wave of infections that is starting to put hospital pediatric wards and family pediatrician offices in crisis, especially in the north of the country. We cannot say that the cases are more serious or burdened with complications than in previous years , also because the balance sheets are made at the end, so we will have to talk about it again in the spring of 2023. But certainly the number of children affected by influenza viruses is far higher than that recorded in the last two winter seasons”.
“What we can say with certainty is that the flu epidemic started earlier than usual – Magrì recalls – The Influnet report shows us that the levels currently recorded are those that were recorded in other winters (before 2020) during the flu peak. In the Province of Lecce, for example, we demonstrated the first cases as early as last August; subsequently, as is obvious, with the arrival of the cold, the greater attendance of closed and crowded places, attendance at schools, contributed to determining the situation we are observing”.
“If we then consider that other viruses are circulating at the same time, not least Sars-CoV-2, we can better understand the situation. Influenza viruses – observes Magrì – are the ones that are circulating more than the others these days, among children , for the reasons mentioned above, but also because it is more difficult for them to have come into contact with the virus in previous years and this is one of the reasons why it is important to vaccinate them as soon as possible, given that the vaccine is one of the fundamental weapons we have disposition to try to limit the possible damages without forgetting the importance of the general rules of prevention”.
“Once again, the symptoms we expect are coughs, colds, headaches, muscle pains, but what we pediatricians fear is the onset of complications, which are always possible even in children – he recalls – Children definitely get sick more; it is true that grandparents pay the most, but complications can arise, albeit rarely even in children, affecting various organs, being able to determine otitis, pneumonia, encephalitis, myocarditis, so that even in children every year we record unavoidable deaths even in previously healthy subjects”.
“Vaccinating children, in addition to helping to significantly reduce the circulation of the flu virus for the benefit of fragile subjects to whom vaccination is primarily aimed, also means containing the huge costs of a disease that weighs heavily on the NHS but which has its repercussions social factors considering the working days lost by parents to look after their sick children”, concludes the pediatrician.
