The State Department of Health (Sesa) on Friday (3), in the auditorium of Maringa University Hospital, in North-West, promoted training on “Acute respiratory infections in childhood, from basic care to the intensive care unit (ICU)”. This improvement brought together 125 doctors working in basic health units, emergency care and hospitals in 30 municipalities that make up the 15th Republika Srpska. One of the topics discussed was syncytial virus.
Sessa warns of its spread because although it is most intense in winter, where it can cause epidemics, the virus is also present in other seasons of the year, with the potential to cause outbreaks. In this area, according to the administration's director of health care and surveillance, Maria Goretti Lopez, there is a concentration of cases in the extreme age groups, with children and the elderly suffering from respiratory problems.
“Children require special attention. The increase in cases of SARS caused by respiratory syncytial virus has been observed since the end of 2022. As expected, given the history of the disease, these cases occur mostly in children under the age of four. That is why we warn It is important to care that parents should notice the signs if the child is having difficulty breathing.
symptoms – Runny nose, mild cough, and sometimes fever. These are the symptoms most babies have with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), one of the biggest causes of respiratory infections in newborns and young children, especially children. It is one of the villains that causes a lot of headache and rush to parents who deal with the care and treatment of children.
In Paraná, since January this year, 6,455 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) have been reported. Of these, 1,596 (24.8%) were children under five years of age. There were 273 cases (17.1%) due to syncytial virus alone in this age group. This number refers only to hospital admissions recorded as a result of infection.
“The majority of infected children have only mild symptoms, generally similar to those of the common cold, but in children younger than 2 years of age, the infection can develop into more serious cases and is responsible for up to 75% of bronchiolitis and 40% of cases of bronchiolitis. bronchioles”. Maria Goretti explained.
monitoring – Surveillance in the state is carried out through guard units (United States), where clinical samples are collected, during the epidemiological week, from cases being treated in these units. Depending on the combination, diagnosis is performed as well as complementary studies for specific viruses, such as influenza, SARS-Cov-2 and RSV itself.
Records of laboratory diagnostic results are entered into Sivep-Gripe, according to defined local flows.
Very careful – Babies younger than six months who are breastfed, especially premature infants, and children with chronic lung disease of prematurity and heart disease, represent groups most at risk for more serious respiratory infections, requiring hospitalization in 10% to 15%. of cases.
Since there is still no vaccine capable of preventing the virus, immunoglobulins (antibodies) are responsible for stimulating passive immunization against RSV. Palivizumab is a monoclonal antibody indicated for increased protection against acute respiratory infections caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children born prematurely or with comorbidities. The medicine is supplied by Sesa to the 22 health regions for administration at application centres.
The medicine is given between April and August (seasonal period) in babies who meet certain criteria, such as premature babies born with a gestational age less than or equal to 28 weeks 6 days and ages less than 1 year (up to 11 m 29 days).
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