Positive coronavirus side effect

Seasonal influenza and respiratory disease dropped dramatically among WA children last winter, in a rare positive outcome of the coronavirus pandemic.

Seasonal influenza and respiratory disease dropped dramatically among West Australian children last winter, in a rare positive outcome of the coronavirus pandemic and the responses adopted in fighting it.

A late spike in cases experienced earlier this month could signal a build-up of susceptible, uninfected children leading to bigger waves of infection in future

Doctors at Perth Children’s Hospital say temporary lockdowns, mask wearing, social distancing, greater personal hygiene and restricted travel were the likely cause of a 98 per cent reduction in the number of children contracting respiratory syncytial virus, a common virus that infects children under 12 months.

There is no vaccine for RSV and the virus, which can lead to pneumonia, causes about 5 per cent of deaths in children under five around the world.

Infectious diseases physician Daniel Yeoh, from PCH, said between March and April last year, when WA schools closed for four weeks and state borders closed, the numbers of children diagnosed with RSV plummeted compared to average admissions over a seven-year period. “We saw hardly any RSV, probably because children weren’t mixing during that relatively short period of lockdown,” he said. “It meant local transmissions stopped and people didn’t bring it in from overseas or were in quarantine.”

Victoria Laurie