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Children are showing up in doctors’ offices infected with up to three different types of viruses, which experts say is the result of weakening their immune systems from two years of COVID lockdowns and mask-wearing.
Medical staff expect an increase in flu cases and severe colds in winter.
But they report there isn’t the usual downturn as summer approaches – and they suspect that could be due to strict pandemic practices.
In addition, some of the most common strains of influenza appear to have disappeared, baffling scientists.
Thomas Murray, an infection control expert and associate professor of pediatrics at Yale, told the Washington Post Monday that his team treated children with combinations of seven common viruses — adenovirus, rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human metapneumovirus, influenza and parainfluenza and the coronavirus.
Some children were admitted with two viruses and some with three, he said.
“That’s not typical of any time of year, and certainly not typical of May and June,” he said.
CDC data obtained by DailyMail.com showed lower rates of influenza infection among young children overall – but an abnormal spike that began a few weeks ago at the start of the summer months, usually a dead period for respiratory infections.
The influenza virus usually fizzles out in the warmer months (see red line, as of 2019). In 2019, infections peaked in the 10th week of the year, in March. But this year (blue line), to the dismay of scientists, it has remained constant and has not disappeared
Children aged 0 to 4 are experiencing a surge in viral infections, which experts say may be due to not being exposed to their usual viral load – thanks to pandemic precautions
Other strange patterns have emerged.
The rhinovirus, known as the common cold, isn’t usually severe enough to send people to the hospital — but now it is.
Michael Mina, epidemiologist and chief science officer at digital health platform eMed, described the current situation as a “massive natural experiment”.
RSV usually subsides in warmer weather, as does influenza, but that is not the case.
And the Yamagata flu strain hasn’t been seen since early 2020 — which researchers might say is because it’s extinct, or maybe just dormant, waiting for the right moment to return.
“It’s a massive natural experiment,” Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and chief science officer at digital health platform eMed, told the Post.
Mina added that the shift in the season when Americans see infections is likely due to the population’s lack of exposure to once-spread viruses – leaving us vulnerable when they return.
“If you have a lot of people who don’t have immunity, the impact of the season is less. It’s like a free hand,” he said.
The virus can therefore “break through seasonal barriers”.
Peter Hotez, a molecular virologist and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, agreed that the norms are shifting and seasonal patterns no longer apply.
“You would see a child with a feverish illness and think, ‘What time of year is it?’ ‘ he said.
An RSV virus is seen under a powerful microscope. The virus is usually only detected in children during the winter
This computer-simulated model, developed by researchers at Purdue University, shows that the common cold virus rhinovirus 16’s receptors attach to the virus’s outer protein coat
The changes are also prompting hospitals to rethink their approach to RSV — a common virus that hospitalizes about 60,000 children under the age of five each year. It can lead to fatal lung infections in particularly vulnerable adolescents.
Treatment is monthly doses of a monoclonal antibody, which is usually only available from November to February.
Now, concerned scientists are carefully tracking the virus in case they suddenly need the drug.
Ellen Foxman, an immunobiologist at Yale School of Medicine whose research examines why viruses can make one person very sick but leave another relatively unharmed, said babies born during the pandemic are likely to be of great interest to scientists.
“These children had no infection at a crucial time in lung development,” she said.
Foxman added that much has been learned about viruses and how to prevent infection in recent years, both from the public at large and from scientists.
“We need to carry on some of the lessons we’ve learned,” she said.
