Children's hospitals across Canada are struggling to handle a surge of young patients with viral infections, including RSV, in what pediatric health-care workers are calling their version of 2020.
warns severe cases of RSV may lead to hospitalization. RSV can also cause secondary bacterial infections, such as pneumonia. There is no vaccine for RSV nor any medication that clears up an infection, so care is normally centred on treating symptoms and secondary infections.warns the number of both RSV and Influenza A cases is “above expected levels for this time of year.” So far, the agency has detected 1,045 cases of RSV, with a seven per cent positivity rate.
Meanwhile, hospitals across Canada have already surpassed their emergency room and in-patient capacity levels and are struggling withWhen her asthmatic three-year-old James Pinter fell ill on Oct. 17 with a fever, cough, congestion and lethargy, Calgary mother Michelle Maguire decided he needed to see a doctor. Her first choice, Alberta Children's Hospital, listed a wait time of more than seven hours online, so she went with her second choice, Rockyview General Hospital.
Part of what's driving high occupancy rates, she said, is the ongoing shortage of children's Advil and Tylenol throughout the country. HSC Children's, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, reported on Oct. 27 that its emergency department saw an average of 139.5 patients per day in September, an increase of almost 11 per cent year-over-year.
"Unfortunately it seems to be coming together all at the same time and it's resulted in, for us at McMaster Children's, unprecedented numbers of kids presenting to our emergency department," he said, as well as "unprecedented numbers who require either an inpatient ward admission or, in some cases, an admission to our critical care units."
"The whole floor she was on had either pneumonia or had the virus," she told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Wednesday. "The doctor that saw her said she's never seen a rise like this, ever." "It has had an impact on our ability to carry out our surgical schedule for those children who need an operation, or who need a hospital bed or ICU bed folowing a surgery," Barnes said.
However, she, Squires, Barnes and McCartney all agreed that for now, there are steps parents can take to make sure they're using the appropriate health-care services in order to preserve hospital capacity for children who need it most.
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