Covid Qld: New warning as huge wave of sickness sweeping the state as Christmas approaches

A wave of illness is sweeping Queensland this holiday season, with hospitals recording a significant spike in Covid hospitalisations and children with respiratory infections.

• Explained: Mycroplasma Pneumoniae

A wave of illness is sweeping Queensland this holiday season, with hospitals recording a significant spike in Covid hospitalisations and children with respiratory infections.

There are currently 322 people in hospitals with Covid and 66 with influenza, while laboratory reports of mycoplasma infections have tripled since the end of November.

Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said the sudden rise in Covid hospitalisations was unexpected and children’s hospitals were reporting “significant numbers” of children with mycoplasma pneumonia.

“The number of Queenslanders in hospital at the moment with Covid is about four times the number that we were seeing in October,” he said.

“When I speak with my pediatric colleagues, we know the (mycoplasma) case numbers in hospitals are significant.”

Dr Gerrard said while influenza numbers were also rising, they were nowhere near numbers seen during the winter outbreak when 400 people were hospitalised with the virus.

“The third interesting or the third respiratory infection of note at present is mycoplasma infection,” he said.

“There was a similar increase reported out of China and in the north elsewhere in the northern hemisphere a few weeks ago and what we are seeing now seems to mirror the experience.

“We have seen a few children with complications of mycoplasma in the last few weeks. We have not really seen much mycoplasma in Australia since before the pandemic.”

Queensland Health Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard. Picture, John Gass

Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections are common and generally mild but can become severe, with symptoms typically including sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, watery eyes, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Dr Gerrard said severe complications in children include brain inflammation and mucositis affecting the eyes or skin.

“What we’re seeing in hospitals is the worst, so what we’re seeing in hospital is likely being the tip of the iceberg as to what we’re seeing in the community,” he said.

“We would only meet children (in hospital) with these nasty complications.”

The sudden uptick in respiratory illness could be explained by increased gatherings and travel during the holidays.

“These are the ideal conditions which allow the transmission of all infectious disease so this significant uptick in respiratory infection and respiratory hospitalisations in summer is unusual,” Dr Gerrard said.

“But a young child who’s gone to school and through the pandemic may never have been exposed to this bacterium before. And that’s why significant numbers of children are getting sick at the moment.”

The vast majority of Queenslanders currently hospitalised with Covid are aged over 65 and had not received their booster vaccination this year.

Earlier this month Dr Gerrard issued a memorandum to all Queensland hospitals regarding the increase in Covid and respiratory cases.

The email dated December 8, viewed by the Courier-Mail, states that hospitals should implement mask-wearing on a need-to basis.

“If you feel there is a significant risk of hospital transmission of the virus, you should feel free to implement local mask requirements at a ward or hospital level.”

Dr Gerrard also advised any staff that fell ill to stay home from work.

It is understood the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital had implemented mask-wearing for staff last week.

Infectious disease expert Dr Paul Griffin said immunity gap was only a factor of the rise in respiratory illness, not an explanation, and there was no credible evidence to suggest Covid itself was compromising immune systems.

“This is very controversial at the moment, as people are using the terms around immunity gap or immunity theft interchangeably,” he said.

“We do know people get an element of protection following exposure to these pathogens, that is particular to RSV and mycoplasma as well.

“Comprehensive mitigation strategies have changed the amount of exposure for all pathogens and that has changed the epidemiology that we are seeing which at least, in part, explains all the changes we are seeing in terms of unseasonal or unexpected increase in rates of these infections.

“We have seen changed lymphocyte counts following Covid infection but we don’t think it’s rendering people significant immune compromise after that so we don’t think it explains the changes we are seeing in respiratory changes.”

Dr Griffin said fthe immunity gap debate should not have become as controversial as it did and encouraged Queenslanders to use reliable sources for health information.

Regarding Covid testing, Dr Griffin said Rapid Antigen Tests were designed specifically for Covid and would not provide a false positive for anyone with mycoplasma pneumonia.

But he did say the state should conduct more laboratory testing so health care professionals could manage the different respiratory infections effectively.

“Most are saying we don’t need to test because we manage these infections differently but we need to get tested and find out which infection it is so you can manage it appropriately,” he said.

Associate Professor Paul Griffin, an infectious disease expert, getting his AstraZeneca vaccine at the Mater Hospital. Pic Annette Dew

The majority of mycoplasma pneumonia infections in children are mild and don’t require intervention however if children are exhibiting alarming symptoms, like not drinking fluids or eating, or struggling to breathe, they may need medical attention.

Parents worried if their child has contracted mycoplasma pneumonia should seek medical attention.

Dr Griffin said Covid waves were difficult to predict now due to reliance on hospitalisation numbers rather than case numbers.

He said hospital numbers “lagged behind active transmission and community infection” and predicted the arrival of new variant JN.1 would caused another peak in Queensland cases.

“There’s not much talk about JN 1 but could account for some of the increase,” he said.

“It may well be similar to south east asian countries, they had a peak, then cases went down and now they’re back up.”

Biphasic Covid waves could be the new normal, as variants replace each other, causing constant dips and rises in case numbers.

Dr Griffin said it was important that antivirals were still a priority and those who were eligible to receive them did so to help reduce strain on the health system.

According to the latest available data, Queensland respiratory illness cases were tracking higher than anywhere else in Australia.

Last week, 2,162 cases of Covid and 836 cases of influenza were recorded by Queensland Health.

In Victoria, Covid cases declined, with the state recording 266 hospital infections, however Covid-19 levels were trending higher after an abundance of Covid was identified in wastewater.

Covid activity also increased in New South Wales over the past two weeks, particularly in child cases, with more than 200 people admitted to hospital with a respiratory illness and more than 120 children presenting to hospital.

New South Wales reports state that Influenza activity was low overall but higher than usual for summer.

South Australia painted a different picture, with just 75 people hospitalised with Covid in December.

Numbers were even lower in Tasmania, where only 23 Covid-positive people were hospitalised.

In Western Australia, about 150 people were hospitalised with Covid in the first week of December.

More than 73,000 influenza cases have so far been recorded in Queensland this year, far exceeding the 2022 total of 44,431.