German intensive care organization DIVI states that the seasonal peak of the RS epidemic combined with a lack of specialist nurses has caused a “catastrophic situation” in the country’s hospitals. On Saturday, the child welfare organization Deutsche Kindershutzbund called for extra resources so that hospitals can handle the cases, reports Deutsche Welle.
– Right now, the situation is much more strained than what we have experienced in recent years. There are waves of viruses pretty much every year, but I have never experienced one as big as this year, says pediatrician Stefan Arens.
Move seriously ill children
Every day, doctors are forced to make difficult decisions about which children should have access to the limited number of intensive care places and which should not. There are reports of being forced to move children with life-threatening conditions to hospitals in other parts of Germany, reports say The Guardian.
For the majority of those infected, the RS infection becomes just a common cold, characterized by a tough runny nose. However, for very small children, often prematurely born, it can cause life-threatening breathing difficulties.
One of the reasons why this year’s wave of infections has become so powerful is the corona pandemic. Thanks to the restrictions, many children have never been exposed to RS infection. Now that the restrictions are lifted and the number of social contacts increased, the number of children who lack natural immune protection against the virus is many times greater than usual. In Sweden, where the restrictions were not as far-reaching, a similar wave of infection came already last fall.
According to DIVI, there were fewer than 100 vacant intensive care places for children this week.
“Will get worse”
– If the forecast about infection is correct, the situation will become significantly more acute in the coming week, says Sebastian Brenner, head of the pediatric intensive care unit at the hospital in Dresden to German n-tv.
He warns that a similar situation threatens in, for example, France and Switzerland. Also in Great Britain and the United States, the number of emergency cases caused by the RS virus has increased in recent weeks. And in Sweden, the children’s emergency room in Uppsala has increased preparedness, says chief physician Maria Lundgren
On Thursday, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach announced that Germany is changing the rules to make it easier to transfer nurses to understaffed pediatric intensive care units. The government will also contribute the equivalent of SEK 6.6 billion to children’s healthcare over the next two years.