Parents urged to be on alert amid rise in respiratory illness

A senior health official is cautioning parents about an upsurge in respiratory illnesses following the lifting of COVID-19 protocols.

Neonatologist Dr Clyde Cave explained to Barbados TODAY that very young children who were previously shielded from flu and other highly contagious viruses due to the protocols no longer had that extra layer of protection since mask mandates have been lifted and mass gatherings have resumed.

“I think what is making it worse now, as in the USA and other places, is that it’s not just the children who are being exposed for the first time, who are usually two years old. We also have three- and four-year-olds who were protected during COVID because of all the protocols being now exposed to all the viruses for the first time.

“So, instead of just [seeing] ten children – two-year-olds – you are getting ten two-year-olds, ten three-year-olds and ten four-year-olds. So the whole number of children with these viruses is quite high,” he said.

Dr Cave said that there were several viruses in circulation affecting children, including influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).

“They all can present with a very similar clinical picture of runny nose, cough, with a bit of fever, and lethargy. There is one version that has stomach symptoms – abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhoea – attached. So this is back to the pre-COVID days where we had a lot of viruses circulating in the community,” he noted.

While stressing that the symptoms associated with long COVID – long-term effects of the infection – have not been widely reported in Barbados, parents who are aware their children previously contracted the virus should continue to monitor their condition if symptoms such as constant cough or change in behaviour are noticed.

“The concerning things would be a child who would have shown a change in their behaviour, a child who is not gaining weight and growing as expected and may even be losing weight, and a child who has symptoms related to either a chronic cough or any kind of heart disturbance or perhaps manifestations in the joints,” Dr Cave explained. (SB)