RSV cases among children rising following SARS-Cov-2 pandemic

[Astronuc]

TL;DR Summary

Protection measures from SARS-Cov-2 also protected the population from other respiratory diseases. Now RSV cases are starting to increase in a population that has not been previously exposed.

'Immunity debt' from Covid-19 lockdown is causing an influx of babies with a severe respiratory virus (respiratory syncytial virus) into hospitals in New Zealand, . . . .
https://news.yahoo.com/covid-immunity-debt-sees-influx-001833570.html

Immunity debt "occurs where people who have not been exposed to normal levels of viruses and bacteria experience a surge in infections as normal life resumes."

In February, a paper published found that New Zealand experienced a 99.9% reduction in flu cases and a 98% reduction in RSV thanks to its Coronavirus restrictions.

However, New Zealand has reported nearly 1,000 RSV cases in the past five weeks, according to the Institute of Environmental Science and Research.

The usual average is 1,743 over the full 29-week winter season.

A French paper published on immunity debt in May warned of future epidemics.

The US has seen a drop in cases of influenza and other respiratory illnesses during the pandemic period in 2020.

However, like NZ, there now appear to be an increase in respiratory illnesses in the US.
https://news.yahoo.com/unusual-rsv-outbreak-tarrant-county-101500729.html

In June, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory alerting health care workers to the increase in RSV cases throughout the southern U.S., and encouraging broader testing of the virus for patients who appear to have a respiratory illness but who test negative for SARS-CoV-2.

The virus causing the infections, respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, causes nothing more than a cold in most healthy adults. But infections can cause serious illness and death in infants and young children, the immunocompromised, and people age 65 and older.

RSV season usually peaks between mid-December and February. But during the 2020-21 season, the continued spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus disrupted the normal seasons for influenza and RSV. . . . the U.S. had almost no flu season to speak of, which experts say is almost certainly because of the pandemic, . . . ,

A related thread
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...ere-2021-flu-season-because-of-covid.1001645/
https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/fluview/fluportaldashboard.html
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm

 

[Astronuc]

RSV causes a respiratory tract infection that affects 64 million people per year worldwide. It hospitalizes 3 million children under 5 years old and approximately 336,000 older adults annually (see ‘Common scourge’). The global health-care costs of RSV-associated infections in young children in 2017 were estimated to be US$5.45 billion3.

Researchers have been trying for decades to develop a vaccine, and have had some particularly devastating failures — including the deaths of two participants in a trial in the 1960s.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03704-y

Now, an effective RSV vaccine is nearly within reach: four candidates and one monoclonal antibody treatment are in late-stage clinical trials.