Significant number of kids in hospital as respiratory illnesses rise

Eastern Ontario health officials say there are a significant number of young children in hospitals with respiratory illnesses and they're hoping the system won't be overwhelmed like last year.

Gina Neto, medical director of CHEO's emergency room, says flu season has again come earlier than it did before the pandemic, when the typical peak was in January and February.

The Ottawa children's hospital is seeing a spike in influenza cases and a "significant number of children" being admitted with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and even pneumonia. 

"We're definitely full … with a significant number of patients waiting in the emergency department for in-patient beds on a daily basis," Neto said. 

It's not as bad as last year, Neto said, when there was an "unprecedented" degree of pediatric respiratory illness across the province. This time last year CHEO had asked the Red Cross for help.

"We're not seeing that this year. We are seeing numbers closer to what would be more of a typical viral season," she said. 

Signs point to rising influenza rates in Ottawa, and according to Ottawa Public Health (OPH) updates, most COVID-19 rates remain very high and are stable or rising. RSV activity is also high.

OPH says the city's health-care institutions remain at high risk from respiratory illnesses, as they have been since early September and are expected to remain so until at least March.

Neto is asking families with young children to get their flu shot, noting it's still not too late. 

Gerald Evans, director of infection prevention and control at the Kingston Health Sciences Centre, says he's also seeing young children getting hospitalized there with RSV.

Those cases have been rising "for a good solid four weeks or so," he said.

"Right now, most of the indicators would suggest we're at (the) peak and are likely to be at peak now for some period of time — maybe a few weeks — before things start to tail off," Evans said.

Start of 'hospital overrun season'

The numbers suggest this is the "beginning of the hospital overrun season," said one expert, who raised the possibility the end of 2023 could turn out to look like the end of 2022.

"The big concern is that they are going to overwhelm the hospital system as we saw last year, and as we are on trend to see again this year," said Raywat Deonandan, an epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Ottawa.

He said it's still unclear which of the respiratory illnesses are dominant, but based on test positivity, COVID-19 is showing the highest rates.

Deonandan said it's important for everyone, not just those who are vulnerable, to get their vaccines. 

"Some people are getting bad advice … they're being told that because they're low risk, they don't need to get the vaccine," he said.

"[But] every person who gets the vaccine adds just a little bit more immunity to the population as a whole and blunts the transmission."