the message was alarming: seven little children had to be resuscitated over the span of 48 hours in the emergency department of ottawa’s children’s hospital. three on monday. “sunday there were 4,” tweeted children’s hospital of eastern ontario president alex munter.
still, the tweet echoed some anecdotal reports that children caught in the respiratory viral storm seem sicker than years past. “it’s the worst i’ve seen in my 14 years on staff,” tweeted dr. tracey bruce, a pediatric anesthesiologist at mcmaster children’s hospital. “multiple viral infections, often in the same child,” and secondary bacterial infections “with catastrophic implications and incredible morbidity,” bruce said. “please wear a damn mask!”
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the number of flu-associated hospitalizations are well above levels typical of this time of year, according to the agency’s fluwatch report . the federal government doesn’t track rsv-related hospitalizations and icu admissions, but in the u.s, babies under a year old are being hospitalized at rates six times higher than at the same point in 2019, vox reported.
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some people have raised “immune dysregulation” caused by sars-cov-2 as a factor behind the surge, drawing comparisons to a virus like measles, which can impact a person’s ability to mount an immune response to future viruses. one study found that children have a higher risk of being diagnosed with diabetes , 30 days after a covid infection, than those without covid.
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