The College of Family Physicians of PEI says doctors have recently been seeing a large number of children with respiratory illnesses unrelated to COVID-19. Dr. Heather Austin, the college’s president, said there are several factors that could be contributing to the increase, including the fact that throughout the pandemic children have had little exposure to these respiratory viruses. “We’re seeing a lot of upper respiratory disease in our population right now,” he said. He said the lifting of public health orders and restrictions also plays a role. “It mostly gets away from mandatory masking regulations and being in close proximity and being able to retransmit all the different viruses and pathogens that are in our environment to each other.” Dr. Heather Austin says that usually a virus can include mild symptoms over three to five days, such as a low-grade fever, congestion, cough, sore throat and runny nose. In some cases, the cough can last up to three weeks. (Zoom) Austin said many seniors have built up immunity to many of these viruses, but when it comes to children, some are likely to be exposed to certain viruses for the first, second or third time. “They don’t have the same built-in immunity, so they’re more likely to develop an infection from an exposure,” he said. Austin also said it can seem like kids have colds or illnesses that just won’t go away. But it is more likely that the child has been infected by several viruses, one after the other. According to the province’s latest flu data, there have been 50 laboratory-confirmed flu cases for 2021-2022. The median age of these cases is about 12 years.
The emergency room also saw an uptick in illness
The rise in respiratory illnesses is something emergency physician Dr. Trevor Jain. “In the last six weeks we have seen an increase in respiratory illnesses in the pediatric population and that is mainly due to the change in orders,” Jain said. He said it’s unusual to see increased respiratory illnesses this time of year. Typically, flu and other viral infections increase in the fall, winter or early spring in children, Jain said. “We talk about anything from the common cold to RSV [respiratory syncytial virus]in croup, increased asthma due to viral infections, even some pneumonia,” he said. “That was a little unexpected, but when you think about it, you know we’ve increased population mixing, lifted orders, so it just goes to show that these pre-vaccination public health measures were very effective in limiting the spread of respiratory disease. .” Emergency physician Dr. Trevor Jain says doctors at the hospital have seen an increase in patients with everything from the common cold to pneumonia over the past 6 weeks. (Skype) Jain said the emergency room is now starting to see the number of admissions for respiratory illnesses drop. Dr. Austin said that usually a virus can include mild symptoms over three to five days, such as a low-grade fever, congestion, cough, sore throat and runny nose. The cough can sometimes last up to three weeks in some cases and as the child recovers, they catch another virus. “The times you would want to seek medical attention would be a persistent fever, definitely a fever beyond five days,” Austin said. “If they are very lethargic, sleepy, not themselves, not eating and drinking in the usual way.” He said if a child is in pain or has trouble breathing they should also get medical attention. To limit the spread of respiratory illnesses, Austin said people should make sure to wash their hands regularly and stay home if they feel unwell.
