On Tuesday, 178 children showed up at the hospital’s emergency department for treatment — about a 45 percent increase from the number of children expected this time of year before the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Elisabete Doyle said. “The children’s hospital emergency department right now is actually in crisis,” Doyle said outside the Children’s Hospital of the Winnipeg Health Sciences Center on Wednesday. “We’re seeing more volume and more acuity than we’ve seen even before the pandemic, in large, large volumes. It’s unprecedented.” The increase in respiratory virus cases in Manitoba in recent weeks is linked to both the number of respiratory viruses circulating in the community and the relaxation of pandemic rules that have allowed these diseases to re-emerge, Doyle said. Some children who show up in the emergency department are also what Doyle called relatively “immune naïve” — meaning they haven’t been exposed to respiratory viruses before, so when they do, they get sick. Care teams are also seeing children test positive for more than one respiratory virus at the same time, Shared Health, which oversees health care delivery in Manitoba, said last week.
The “cocktail” of conditions could cause stress
Virologist Julie Lajoie said she wasn’t surprised to hear how hard Winnipeg’s children’s hospital is struggling, especially as cases of illnesses like RSV — or respiratory syncytial virus — increase among children across Canada. Lajoie said the current spike in RSV cases is occurring earlier than usual in the season. But while the overall number of cases is still lower than what Manitoba saw last year, the increase in emergency room visits is new, he said. As for what caused this change, Lajoie said the culprit could be any of a number of factors — including that with more types of viruses circulating this year, children are more likely to have multiple infections at once, which strains the immune system. their system. Many children also contracted COVID-19 for the first time in the spring and winter, Lajoie said, suggesting that those infections could have left their immune systems more vulnerable to other viruses. And shortages in some painkillers for children may leave some parents with fewer options to prevent an emergency hospital visit, he said. “So those are the odds that all come together,” said Lajoie, a research associate at the University of Manitoba. Virologist Julie Lajoie says several factors could be driving the increase in patients at Winnipeg’s children’s hospital. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC) “It’s all a hypothesis — we don’t really know, but it’s a cocktail that’s not really good right now.” Doyle said the respiratory virus season in Australia, which usually offers a hint of what’s to come in Canadasuggests that the situation in Manitoba will likely worsen. Lajoie echoed that sentiment, predicting flu cases in the province will increase until early or mid-December — and calling for measures to reduce that risk now. “If we don’t have the means to reduce the risk of infection right now to catch up a bit [of] this flu rush, we are facing a big problem in both adults and children[‘s] hospital,” he said.
Bring back mask commands: virologist
Lajoie said those measures should put more emphasis on improving air quality in classrooms — and bringing back mask mandates for places like schools and grocery stores. “Whatever you have in a very crowded space without good ventilation, you have to bring the mask back[s],” he said. “Whatever is necessary: going to the grocery store, going to the pharmacy … all of those should have a mask mandate right now.” Manitoba lifted the remaining public health mandates, including mask rules, in mid-March. Despite the children’s hospital being so full, Doyle urged parents to continue to bring their children to the emergency department for certain symptoms. These include if they are very sleepy and difficult to wake up, if they have trouble breathing or pause in their breathing, and if they don’t urinate at least three times in 24 hours, he said. For most other symptoms, parents can probably avoid busy emergency departments and instead go to their family doctor or pediatrician, urgent care or an affiliated clinic, Doyle said. He also asked parents to do everything they can to prevent the further spread of respiratory viruses to children. These steps include washing their hands properly, covering their mouth and nose when they sneeze or cough, keeping their children out of daycare or school when they are sick, vaccinating them against diseases against which they can be grafted and brought to the right place. Care. “We have a shared responsibility, I think, in taking care of our children,” Doyle said.
Winnipeg Children’s Hospital dealing with rising respiratory virus cases
On Tuesday, 178 children showed up at the hospital’s emergency department for treatment — about a 45 percent increase from the number of children expected this time of year before the COVID-19 pandemic.
