According to a study, more than three times as many newborns and infants were treated with the RS virus in clinics in Brandenburg in winter 2022 as four years earlier. While there were 15.1 cases per 1000 children under one year from October to December last year, the number from October to December 2018 was 4.4 cases per 1000. This was shown by the figures from the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit among its insured. Extrapolated to all children living in Brandenburg, around 300 babies were treated in the hospital in winter 2022, and around 100 in winter 2018.
When children cough heavily, breathe rapidly, and get short of breath, it may be respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). You can get RSV at any age, but the pathogen is particularly important in infants and small children. It can be a simple respiratory infection, but severe courses up to death are also possible. Experts assume that one reason for the increase in cases is that significantly fewer children were infected with RSV in the winter before last due to school closures and contact bans in the corona pandemic. That has now been made up for.
Around 42,000 children examined
For the analysis as part of the children and youth report, scientists from Vandage GmbH and the University of Bielefeld examined accounting data from around 42,000 children and youths up to the age of 17 who are insured with DAK-Gesundheit in Brandenburg. Among them were 2,100 newborns and infants less than one year old. The years 2017 to 2022 were analyzed. A total of around 250,000 people are insured with DAK-Gesundheit in Brandenburg.
According to the DAK, around 17,000 newborns and infants had to be treated in a hospital nationwide for the RS virus in the fourth quarter of 2022, extrapolated to all children. That is five times more than in the same period in 2018. For the nationwide analysis, scientists examined data from around 786,000 children and adolescents up to the age of 17 from 2017 to 2022. (dpa)
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