PICU layoffs due to pandemic lulls, but children are now getting 3 years of viral infection all at once – Oct 2022

The Worst Pediatric-Care Crisis in Decades - Oct 31, 2022

The Atlantic   PDF

• "Across the country, children have for weeks been slammed with a massive, early wave of viral infections—driven largely by RSV, but also flu, rhinovirus, enterovirus, and SARS-CoV-2."
• "It’s already the largest surge of infectious illnesses that some pediatricians have seen in their decades-long careers, and many worry that the worst is yet to come. “
• "For much of the pandemic, some combination of masking, distancing, remote learning, and other tactics tamped down on the transmission of nearly all the respiratory viruses that normally come knocking during the colder months. This fall, though, as kids have flocked back into day cares and classrooms with almost no precautions in place, those microbes have made a catastrophic comeback."
• (A mass exodus of health-care workers—nurses in particular—has also left the system ill-equipped to meet the fresh wave of demand."

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Possible RSV, Covid-19 and Flu Collision Has Doctors Worried. What to Know - Oct 26, 2022

Wall Street Journal

• “It’s very clear that because people are relaxing Covid precautions that it’s very likely we will also see an increase in influenza at the same time,”
• "Young children who haven’t been exposed to the (RSV) virus over the past few years are getting hit now. "
• She said babies often get RSV from someone in the household. “It's common that the older sibling goes to day care, went to the store, went to a party, came home, had a runny nose and then the infant got really sick.”

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New Hybrid Virus Discovered as Flu And RSV Fuse Into Single Pathogen - Oct 31. 2022

Science Allerts

• "he hybrid virus looks like a gecko's foot under the microscope, with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) forming the legs and influenza A virus forming the toes."
• "When these two viruses join forces, influenza A appears to infect a higher number and broader range of human cells. The influenza A particles were found to evade the immune system by displaying the RSV surface proteins, giving the virus a survival advantage."
• "The hybrid also spread into cells that lacked influenza receptors, which could allow influenza A to move further down the respiratory tract into the lungs and lead to more severe infection"

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See related Tripledemic: Flu, COVID, and RSV (all fought by Vitamin D) - Oct 2022

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RSV and Vitamin D in medical publications

• Modulation of the Immune Response to Respiratory Viruses by Vitamin D - May 2014 https://doi.org/10.3390/nu7064240 FREE PDF
• The interplay between vitamin D and viral infections January 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/rmv.2032
• Vitamin D in respiratory viral infections: a key immune modulator? Sep 2021 https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2021.1972407
• Serum Vitamin D Levels and Life-Threatening Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection in Previously Healthy Infants Sept 2022,
  • https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiac033   11.8X more likely if low vitamin D
• Vitamin D Receptor polymorphisms and risk of enveloped virus infection: A meta-analysis - Dec 2018
  • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2018.08.017 FREE PDF
• Back to basics: review on vitamin D and respiratory viral infections including COVID-19 - Oct 2020
  • https://doi.org/10.1080/20009666.2020.1811074 FREE PDF
• Comparison of Viral Agents and Vitamin D Levels in Children with Acute Bronchiolitis Infection. March 2019
• Cord blood vitamin D deficiency is associated with respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis - June 2011 doi: 10.1542/peds.2010-3054

Note: PDFs of many medical studies before 2020 are available at http://libgen.rs/scimag/

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RSV - not just those under age 2, anticipate big outbreak after 2 years of isolation - Oct 29, 2022

R.S.V. Cases Are Rising. Here’s What You Need to Know - New York Times

• "In a normal prepandemic year, 1 to 2 percent of babies younger than 6 months with an R.S.V. infection may need to be hospitalized. And virtually all children have gotten an R.S.V. infection by the time they are 2 years old."
• “Adults still get R.S.V. fairly regularly and they can get reinfected multiple times throughout adulthood,”
• "According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 177,000 older adults are hospitalized with R.S.V. each year and 14,000 of them die."
• "Those at highest risk for severe infections include premature infants, babies under 6 months of age, infants and toddlers with chronic lung disease or congenital heart disease, as well as children with weakened immune systems and those who have neuromuscular disorders that make it difficult to clear out mucus."
  • Note: Many of these are associated with low Vitamin D

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VitaminDWiki - 50 studies in both categories Virus and Infant-Child

This list is automatically updated