Increase in respiratory infections: – Fear of winter crisis:

There is an increase in the number of detected cases of RS virus infection in the Swedish region of Uppsala. The health authorities in Sweden are now giving clear advice to parents with young children, and declare the RS virus an epidemic.

– We recommend that you keep children under six months at home as much as possible, and preferably also older siblings, who would otherwise have gone to preschool, says infection control doctor Johan Nöjd in a press release.

– Serious situation

RS-virus is an abbreviation for respiratory syncytial virus, and is a virus that causes respiratory infections in children and adults. Nöjd advises to avoid social contexts where young children are involved.

– Families with small children should continue to behave as during the covid-19 pandemic: Socialize with the closest circle, keep a distance when possible, wash your hands often and sneeze in the armpit, says Nöjd.

Local authorities have decided to send an SMS to everyone who has given birth in the past year.

– This is a very unusual measure, but the situation is serious and in this way we reach out to many, says Mikael Köhler, director of health and medicine in Uppsala.

Follows the situation

In Norway, too, respiratory infections such as the RS virus have gained a foothold. The number who were diagnosed with the RS virus, increased by close to 50 percent from week 39 to 40.

Since the very youngest have not been exposed to common viruses and lack immunity due to corona life in the last year, FHI expects a major wave of respiratory infections in young children this winter.

– When we enter the autumn and winter months, there are usually more respiratory infections in general, and the flu season is also next. What this will mean for things that the burden on the hospitals will depend on how large an increase we get in the number who need health care in hospitals as a whole, says department director in FHI, Line Vold, to Dagbladet.

Hyttekommune takes corona attack

She states that they follow the situation closely, both when it comes to influenza and covid-19, and other respiratory infections such as RS virus. NIPH will prepare modeling to look at how this can develop in the future.

– Good monitoring for respiratory infections in general and influenza, covid-19 and RS in particular, is important to gain a good understanding of the situation, among other things with regard to preparedness for strain on hospitals in the future, says Vold.

Great uncertainty

RS virus causes outbreaks every winter. Common symptoms are symptoms of the common cold, with cough and fever. Almost all children have undergone RS virus infection before the age of two, but reinfection is also common.

– How do you think the numbers of hospital admissions will look in the coming months?

– There are usually several hospitalizations caused by respiratory infections in the autumn and winter months. There is great uncertainty about exactly how many admissions there will be, but the hospitals have good routines for preparing for an increase in the season we are now in, she says.

Violence states that we may be more exposed to disease than we are in a normal situation, as a result of our immune system not being exposed to as much infection as it usually is.

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– Experience from other countries indicates that outbreaks of certain infectious agents can be significant, for example for RS virus. It is too early to say what the winter flu outbreak will look like, she says.

May be lagging behind

In the youngest children, especially those under 1 year of age, the RS virus can lead to bronchiolitis, an inflammation of the lower respiratory tract that can cause difficulty breathing and the need for hospitalization. Between 1,000 and 2,000 children aged 0-5 years are admitted for RS virus infection annually, according to FHI.

Assistant health director Espen Rostrup Nakstad tells Dagbladet that there are already many admissions.

– There may be a backlog in that the younger siblings of the very youngest may not have been present in this virus and therefore are not immune. You can get a greater spread in kindergartens than you had otherwise, he says.

Nakstad emphasizes that the advice to keep children at home when they are ill still applies.

– It is precisely so that we will not get these powerful waves of respiratory viruses over the autumn and winter. This is a situation you follow very closely, and then it remains to be seen how long this will be and how many simultaneous serious cases of disease we get with RS virus, says Nakstad.

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A difficult month

According to FHI, the monitoring from last week shows that flu activity in Norway is very low. Influenza virus was detected in five cases last week. All were import cases.

No new admissions to hospitals and intensive care units with influenza have been registered in Norway in the 2021–22 season.

– The flu season usually begins in January and lasts until February. It is a difficult month for all hospitals in Northern Europe. There are usually a good number of inpatients, and this is a situation that is prepared for in the Norwegian healthcare system every single year, says Nakstad.

He believes that the problem arises if there are many corona patients in hospitals as well.

The infection increases: – Surprised

– Then there can be a double burden on infection wards, and not least on the wards that treat the worst patients. But we do not know how it will be. I think the Norwegian health service is preparing well and is following it very closely, he says.

Nakstad adds that we have many measures we can potentially use when needed.

– Influenza vaccine is one important measure, coronavina vaccine is another. And we have become good at infection control in hospitals, in elderly institutions and elsewhere in society. We have many tools we can use if we see that many people become seriously ill as we approach Christmas, he says.

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