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Parents are being asked to take extra precaution as New Zealand heads into winter after a spike in hospital admissions for respiratory conditions, especially for children under 5.
Professor Stuart Dalziel, Starship Hospital’s head of emergency, said respiratory infections were quite common this time of the year, but they were already seeing “a large number” of children being admitted to hospitals.
More than a third of hospital admissions across the country were for children, and three-quarters of these were children under 5 years old, he said.
“That’s a significant problem for children,” Dalziel said.
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“What we see is always are a winter peak of those conditions, but what we are uncertain about is what will happen as we come out of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
A recently launched State of Child Health report from Cure Kids revealed hospitalisation rates for respiratory conditions in children has continued to increase since 2000.
It halved at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, due to public health measures like border control, physical distancing and hand hygiene, but it remained relatively high for preschool children.
After a partial reopening of the international border in 2022, there was an increase in infections such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and hospitalisations increased to near pre-pandemic levels for under 5-year-olds.
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Doctors are worried about a spike in cases of flu, bronchiolitis and Covid in children this winter. (File image)
Dalziel said the three viruses they were worried about this season were influenza, RSV – which causes bronchiolitis in young children – and Covid.
“It’s likely we are going to see all three of those viruses driving our respiratory admissions this winter.”
Doctors were also concerned about possible epidemics of whooping cough and measles.
Three babies have died so far this year from whooping cough, the latest in April.
In May, two cases of measles were detected and forced a school closure in Auckland.
Dalziel said measles can cause significant pneumonia in young children.
“In order to address both whooping cough and measles, what I strongly advise all parents to do is to get their child immunised and up-to-date with their childhood immunisations.”
Vaccines against both of these diseases were on New Zealand’s standard immunisation schedule for children. The flu and Covid vaccines were also freely available, he said.
“Ideally, in order to stop things like a measles outbreak within our society, we need to have 95% of our children immunised. For Māori that figure is just under 50% and that’s a long way from the ideal 95%.
“We certainly need to make that a priority, and we really need to urgently deliver those services because we’re beginning to see cases of measles.
“It’s an incredibly contagious disease, and once it gets out of control, then it gets very difficult to bring under control.”
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