Princes Risborough resident Claire Harding, an adult nurse at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, remembers how her 20-month-old son fell ill around Christmas last year.
“He had been under the weather for a few days,” she claimed. “He had a high temperature, was a little chesty, wasn’t eating, and wasn’t his normal self.”
“If he worsens, the doctor advised taking him to A&E. We rushed him to Stoke Mandeville Hospital’s A&E because I noticed something that morning that looked like abdominal tugging, where his stomach was constricting inwards when he breathed. He was examined right soon.
It was terrible and extremely tense. Getting a toddler to wear a nebuliser was a great challenge. None of the parents I know would want it. His oxygen levels would be fine during the day but would continuously plummet at night as the RSV virus spread, and we experienced some quite tense nights in the hospital as they worked to stabilise him.
After spending five days in the hospital, Thomas is now required to take a relieving inhaler whenever he contracts a cold.
Benefits of the new RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccination program are being highlighted by the UK Health Security Agency and Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) after it was introduced in September.
Even though RSV affects 90% of children during their first two years of life, not many people are aware of it. Usually, it results in mild, cold-like symptoms. However, it is a major cause of child death worldwide and can result in serious lung infections including pneumonia and newborn bronchiolitis.
Claire has already registered for the vaccination; she is currently 32 weeks along with her second kid.
“I am so lucky that the timing has worked out so I can get the vaccine before I give birth again,” the woman continued. I am fully aware that RSV may be even more dangerous for a younger child, therefore there is no way I want to go through it again. Any pregnant lady who qualifies should have the vaccination, in my opinion. If your child contracts the virus at an early age, it could spare them and their family from going through a very trying time.
Every year, the primary cause of the winter strain in children’s hospitals is RSV infection, which puts pressure on the paediatric intensive care units and even results in the cancellation of surgeries.
In the UK, it causes 20 to 30 infant fatalities annually and about 20,000 hospital admissions for infants younger than one year of age.
In addition to collaborating quickly with NHS partners to guarantee the successful implementation of the two new programs, the UKHSA will regularly conduct nationwide surveillance to track the programs’ effects.
According to a recent thorough analysis[1], the new initiative, which will debut in England this autumn, might normally save 5,000 hospital admissions and 15,000 ER visits for newborns.
About The Author
