Children bear brunt of flu onslaught
An explosive cocktail of influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses is plaguing children in this first period of “normalcy” after two and a half years of restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to medical experts.
The result has been overcrowded hospital emergency departments, with waiting times of up to eight hours in some instances reported on Saturday at emergency departments, with tempers fraying.
“There were aggressive attitudes from parents toward the staff for the long waits. The police were called and intervened twice,” said the president of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees, Michalis Giannakos.
The upward trend of influenza in Greece is also recorded in the latest report of the National Organization for Public Health (EODY), which noted that in the first week of December, visits to doctors for flu treatment increased by 41.5% compared to the previous week.
“We see many cases of bronchiolitis caused by many respiratory viruses and too much flu. Most children in the outpatient clinic have the flu, are examined, given the appropriate instructions and sent home. In contrast, hospitalizations usually involve cases of bronchiolitis that are largely due to the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV),” said Maria Tsolia, professor of pediatrics at the 2nd University Pediatric Clinic of the Athens School of Medicine at the P&A Kyriakou Hospital of the National Academy of Sciences.
She said that such pressure on pediatric hospitals is common every winter, as it was in the pre-pandemic period. It is just that this year the pressure came earlier.
“We had the measures lifted and did the flu and other viral infections get a chance to spread? Maybe that’s one explanation, but we can’t say for sure,” she added while noting that the fact the flu outbreak started earlier this year may mean that it will end sooner.
