A city coughs and sniffles. Corona, the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children and the influenza virus – three respiratory diseases ensure full waiting rooms for internists and paediatricians and numerous sick leave. The situation is also tense in hospitals and emergency rooms. Three viruses stir things up: But, and this is good news for all parents: the number of children suffering from the RS virus is slowly declining. As are the numbers of acute respiratory diseases (ARE).
The health department (GSR) refers to a weekly report from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). According to this, the numbers in the week of December 12 in Germany fell compared to the previous week. Nevertheless, according to the RKI, the values are currently “still above the level of previous years” at the peak of severe flu waves. Visits to the doctor by children up to the age of 14 also fell.
There’s a lot going on in the emergency room
“The situation is still tense,” says Bernhard Heindl, head of the Strategic Management Consultancy department at the LMU Klinikum, “but not catastrophic.” The intensive care units are also not overflowing: Nevertheless, there is a lot going on in the emergency rooms, and the transfer of patients by the emergency services involves long waiting times. Because all clinics are full and have “hoisted the red flags”. Which means: In the interdisciplinary care record (Ivena), which shows the treatment and bed capacities of the regional hospitals, the emergency rooms are temporarily logged off. “The biggest problem at the moment is the influenza virus,” says Heindl. Sars-CoV-2 is always there – “like a background noise”.
Johannes Hübner speaks of a “packed” clinic. The senior physician and department head of infectiology at the Hauner Children’s Hospital confirms that the situation is “critical” but “manageable”. Nursing staff looked after several children, beds would be moved back and forth. However, according to Hübner, all children with the RS virus could be cared for “adequately and well”. In the meantime, however, you can “lay more” again, says the 62-year-old.
The numbers aren’t going up
Even if 50 percent of the small patients in the Munich Clinic (Mük) at the Schwabing site have RSV: “We have actually just reached a plateau,” confirms Julia Hauer. According to the chief physician of the Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at the Munich Clinic, the numbers have not increased recently. Nevertheless, one has reached a “capacity limit”. Because all patients – whether corona, influenza or RSV – would have to be isolated. A PCR test, which responds to all three viruses and is taken on admission, decides how patients are allocated to rooms. “Children who have contracted RSV are put in one room, influenza patients in another,” says Hauer. More children are currently coming with a very high fever and febrile seizures – typical signs of flu. RSV patients mainly have bronchitis and are often dependent on additional oxygen treatment.
There are always RSV waves. The virus is epidemiologically very complex, explains Johannes Hübner. When the waves came and went, nobody “understood” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/. “We’ve known these waves for years,” says Julia Hauer. But now the wave is much more “pronounced”. For the chief physician, there is a reason: due to the pandemic restrictions in recent years, the children have been exposed to significantly fewer infectious diseases. “That makes them much more vulnerable now.”
The Munich Health Department (GSR) does not have exact numbers of how many children contracted the RS virus and were treated as outpatients or inpatients, as the Infection Protection Act does not deal with reportable cases of illness.
Not only the children, but also many adults are currently lying flat. Sick calls are increasing again. For example, according to the Munich Clinic, the sickness rate among employees is currently almost two percent higher than in December 2021.
Increasing sick leave
And the health insurance companies are also registering increasing sick leave. According to the health insurance company AOK Bayern, figures are currently only available for the months of September and October in Bavaria. But these figures already show that the so-called incapacity rate (AU) among insured employees has risen significantly. In September there were a total of 127,769 cases of acute infection of the upper respiratory tract in Bavaria, in October there were already 212,202 – this corresponds to an increase of 66 percent. In the previous year there were a total of 47,142 cases in September and 107,902 in October. Compared to October of the previous year, the current value is almost double.