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A LEADING GP says parents ought to be more concerned about RSV than Strep A.
While Dr Illona Duffy says it is understandable that parents are concerned about Strep A, she added that RSV is the “big reason for admissions to hospital” at the moment.
RSV usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms but can be serious, especially for infants and older adults.
It is highly contagious and this year’s winter spike is likely the result of a reduced immune response in children after limited contact with one another last year.
“We’re definitely seeing a rise in RSV,” said Dr Duffy, “probably because in the last couple of years we haven’t seen much of anything because of Covid and the restrictions.
“That made it easier to contain the spread of infection, whereas now we’re back to mixing and mingling and also children who haven’t met these viruses because of the lockdown, many of them never met the normal virus that they would meet at this time of the year and didn’t meet them in the last two winters.”
Dr Duffy warns that this has weakened some children’s immunity and has affected their ability to combat the virus.
On Wednesday, children’s hospitals across Dublin announced they were under extreme pressure due to the high number of sick children presenting in emergency departments, and the number of very sick children already receiving care.
“RSV is the big thing and listening to the paediatricians in the hospital, they’re saying RSV is the main reason for admissions to hospital at the moment and that it’s not so much Strep A,” said Dr Duffy.
“The Chief Medical Officer has actually said that we’re not seeing a massive rise in Strep A infections, that it matches pre-Covid levels.”
Speaking to Morning Ireland yesterday, CMO Professor Breda Smyth said: “The number of cases (of Strep A) we’ve had this year is actually much lower than pre-pandemic times. But we are keeping a very close eye on it.”
Professor Smyth added: “As we know, there are a lot of bugs circulating at the moment because we had a reduced social mixing, particularly in children.”
The HSE has confirmed that a four-year-old died from a Strep A infection. There were two paediatric deaths attributed to the infection in both 2018 and 2019.
Latest figures from the HPSC reveal there have been 55 confirmed cases of Strep A so far this year.
Pre-pandemic, however, a total of 136 cases were recorded in 2018 and 108 cases were recorded in 2019.
Dr Duffy said this correlates to what she is experiencing in her own practice: “We’re not seeing a massive rise in Strep A presentations, we’re seeing what we’d normally see, but we are seeing huge rise in RSV.”
She added that “really young kids, under six months, and kids with underlying health conditions are the group that are most likely to end up being admitted with RSV”.
However, Dr Duffy said RSV levels “are probably back at pre-pandemic levels”.
“We have surges of it every winter and it’s just that this is the first winter we’ve seen it in three years. So that’s why perhaps it all seems a bit newer.
“I don’t think it’s massively higher than previous years, although the hospitals are seeing more admissions and are seeing younger kids who are sicker with it.”
Meanwhile, Met Éireann has advised that the current cold snap could extend into next week.
While there are surges in RSV cases over the winter months, this is because people spend more time indoors and in closer proximity to each other, rather than being the result of cold weather or being chilled.
Strep A concerns
While Dr Duffy said she understands the concerns of parents when it comes to Strep A because “they’re being told to worry about it, she added that “we have to use common sense”.
“At the moment, we’re seeing lots of people worried and I even had one mother this morning saying that her child has had a cough for weeks and the creche won’t let the child in because it could be Strep A. We can’t have that happening. We have to use common sense here.”
Strep A is a bacterial infection that is spread by contact with an infected person or by contact with infected skin lesions.
The HSE this week circulated advice to schools about the infection following the death of a child from Strep A.
But while Dr Éamonn O’Moore, Director of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, said that “the news of a child death with Strep A will be worrying for parents”, he added that “most children who get ill from a Group A Strep infections will have a mild illness which can be treated with antibiotics”.
RSV also typically results in a mild illness with cold-like symptoms.
Speaking to The Journal, Dr Duffy said those who have Strep A will exhibit clear symptoms.
“Some kids end up with a generalised rash, so we talk about the scarlet fever and that gets its name from the rash that is created. So get that helps us in diagnosing and we know to get the children penicillin.”
However, she adds that a “big concern at the moment is that there is a shortage of antibiotics”.
It comes following a warning from the President of the Irish Pharmacy Union that supplies are short.
Speaking to Today with Claire Byrne yesterday, Dermot Twomey said “a number of key antibiotics that we would dispense on a daily basis are running short”.
Dr Duffy told The Journal that this underscores the need “making sure we’re getting antibiotics to the right children”.
“GPs have scoring tools that we use and we have the pain score,” she said, “and that’s really good because it helps us decide who actually is likely to need an antibiotic, as opposed to just giving it to everybody who has a sore throat or everyone who a high temperature.”
‘Have a thermometer’
“If the temperature is becoming harder to control and is not improving after a few days, and if your child is becoming more unwell and has stopped eating, and if they’re young babies and not drinking their bottles, they’re the kind of calls of concern and they’re the things where we would be saying, ‘you do need to be seen and you do need to talk to us’.”
However, Dr Duffy said if children are “mildly unwell, with snuffles and a mild cough, temperatures are controlled and they’re drinking in if they’ve reduced eating, then we’d be saying, ‘watch and wait and see’”.
Her message was to ensure there is a thermometer in the house “so that you’re able to figure if your child is unwell”.
“It’s amazing how many people still don’t have a thermometer and they’re going by touch,” said Dr Duffy.
“A child that seems really cold and sweaty may actually have a really high core temperature, so touching won’t help you to diagnosis it.”
She also advised parents and guardians to “know how manage temperature, what dose of Calpol or Nurofen or things like that to give”.
She also advised parents and guardians to “encouraging fluids, especially to younger babies, and monitor their nappies if they’re under six months”.
“I think any young child who stops eating and drinking, and there’s high temperatures, you have to be worried about that and I think that’s always a good measure; when they stop eating and drinking, you know there’s something wrong.”
She also cited undertheweather.ie as a good tool for parents and guardians.
‘Overwhelmed’
While Dr Duffy said she understands why parents are worried about Strep A, she expressed concern that the Out-of-Hours could become “overwhelmed” by worried parents.
“We need to actually tell them they need to be more worried about the RSV and preventing that and if your child is unwell, don’t send them to school or creche until their symptoms leave of their temperature settles because while you’ve got a temperature, you’re contagious.
“We’ve got to ensure that those who need to be seen, the sicker children, have access to appointments, especially in GP out of hours.
“Parents tend to know their children, and if you’re worried and you really think they’re deteriorating, absolutely see your GP.
“But in the meantime, if they’re mildly unwell, monitor them at home and seek advice from undertheweather.ie.”
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What sort of eejits are proposing this sort of restrictions. Stay in your County, stay at home & don’t drink. Let’s just move to Saudi Arabia
@Mos: who is telling you not to drink?
Hyperbole much?
@Fozz: The 12% who voted they should close altogether.
@Mos:
The same eejits that other eejits voted for..
@Mos: it will cut wages,hours and the total paye and vat returns. While bills and rates again vat.
@Fozz: the people who said they should close
@Fozz: Have a read and check out the poll, then comment.
@Mos: A very good idea, Mos.. And take the anti-mask protest eejits with you
@Mos: Stay open longer!
Would the person who is planning to have a drink not just buy it earlier? There is no logic to this suggestion.
@Carol Oates: different people work different hours, ( shifts). Offlicence’s should be open 24/7
@BatMon: I think that would only add to the pressure of a+e staff. Not a great idea.
@Carol Oates: If people cannot get alcohol for a last minute party, have these party expert and young person expert TDs considered that they might buy drugs and still go. Leo said that NPHET hadnt thought things through. He could say that about this proposal as well.
@BatMon: That supports the argument of not reducing hours. People will do what they do now, buy whenever they are open and probably just keep something on hand. I agree off licences should be able to open 24 hours if it suits them to do so. Certainly it’s madness that someone doing their food shop or getting their shopping delivered at 7 in the morning can’t buy wine if they choose to.
@Carol Oates: Maybe because people are in work before the off licences open and might want to buy a few cans for when they finish their work week?
I’m all for the level 3, 4 or 5 but in all fairness it’s turning into a dictatorship now and seeing how far into compliance they can push people.
It’s bad enough that as a grown and responsible adult that I cant buy a bottle of wine at a certain time of the morning when I like to do the weekly shopping, this is just a step too far.
@Jurga Moylan: Under his eye.
@Jurga Moylan: well it is the blueshirts
@Jurga Moylan: in fairness , why would the government want a dictatorship when it comes to alcohol drinking ?!
@Mark Murphy: drunk/hungover worker slaves don’t make for productive worker slaves.
People will still get it if they want. Stop prohibition.
@pethelhug:
Exactly, if they can’t get it legally then it will be driven underground and people will will support the black market.
@Michael Clinton: Or they’d drive north – whoever is selling all the fireworks would no doubt supply drink as well?
Remember when off-licences would close on Good Friday? Did that stop house parties?
Not sure how reducing opening hours would do anything the proposers claim.
Lets see them close the dail bar first before destroying the livelihood of more people and penalising people who abide by the laws .
@William Mcgee: The early closure would have a short term impact. Maybe for a few weeks until people get more organised for parties either by buying in advance or by moving onto drugs.
So its a card that should be saved until we need it more and even then only impose it for a few weeks.
@William Mcgee: it’s not open! I know!
@John Murphy: no it shouldn’t be saved and it should never be used.
The option “they should stay open longer” is missing.
Mum and I bought 9 bottles of beer on monday. All just for dad. Only one gone so far. Maybe another one or two gone in the next few days.
Not everyone buying large quantities of alcohol is doing so for parties.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: must have been awfully big bottles that you needed two people to buy them.
@Tom kenny: 9 green bottles standing on a wall ……………… & if one ……!!!!!
@Tom kenny: Noe that made me LOL on this s@itty morning, Thanks.
@Tom kenny: So Tom enlighten me as to how they got there to buy them , was it by car, train, bus or walking and could you also explain how you would carry 9 bottles if maybe your other arm was in a sling or what if she was helping her Mam along in the zimmer frame . So many what ifs ??????? but you went with the MUST !
@Mirabelle Stonegate: 9 bottles of beer is hardly “large” quality.
We are talking about two different things here
@Ken Bramley: humour is not your strong point, is it?
@Tom kenny: We were doing the grocery shop together. Mum wasn’t in a position to be doing much heavy lifting, as she’d had an angio a few days before.
@transik: It’s a large quantity to buy for one person.. At least in our family.
I bought 3 cans at the start of lockdown, and that was enough to last me through until the end. That was, for me, a far larger amount than is considered normal.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: Fair point, if people are only shopping every fortnight, naturally they’ll buy more in one shop. I’d say they’re more concerned with people filling the whole car with cans than occasional drinkers.
@transik: Actually no you are not..It doesn’t matter if its 9 bottles or 99 bottles. Its the fact they are trying to stop a person from getting it. I am getting a bit fed of this cra-p its turning into a nanny state.
Ludricious suggestion if I’ve ever seen one
It didn’t work in South Africa, I find it hard to believe it’ll work here. Put more workers on less pay. People will just buy their cans earlier in the day and it will encourage others to bulk buy and sell on themselves. Gardaí need the ability to stop house parties, and give more than a civil offense for them. If the government want everyone to stay at home all day, with no vices to cope with the mental strain, they should consider decriminalizing possession of cannabis.
I hope that people are not being paid to come up with such ideas?
What’s next, close fast food restaurants to reduce obesity and cholesterol counts?
Nanny nation.
@George Vladisavljevic: Will you not be giving them more ideas
When I was in college, the changed the closing hours from 11:30, to 10pm. Did it give the desired outcome of people drinking less? Of course not, people just bought their alcohol earlier in the evening. From my experience it resulted in people drinking more, as they had their alcohol earlier in the evening, they started drinking earlier.
I can’t believe people get paid for ideas like this… of course it won’t work, people will just adjust to suit the new times. In fact, it may even have the opposite effect, with perceived restrictions causing a rush on off licences. At least with pubs, mandatory social distancing/hygiene/tracing/etc. can be applied. Given their closure have caused this spike in housd parties, maybe its time to reassess what we’re doing there?
@PeterC: Good lord Peter stop talking sense. You know its not allowed:):)
They went from 11:30pm to 10pm.
I’m not too sure what benefit going even earlier will have.
Once a place is open during set hours people can, and will, buy what they want when they can.
Makes no sense, if people want to do drinking they will buy it earlier in the day. There will then be big queues as they are open for less time meaning its more likely that someone infects someone else while there. Also, even if there was no drink, young people are still going to meet up, its not like they will say, il just stay home tonight and if they did have no drink, many will try get their hands on something else for a bit of a kick. I don’t see any positive in it.
@Fandandi: making sense here
I’ve a feeling we won’t be seeing much of these particular ministers in the future, saying things like that could really annoy the electorate
@kevin mc cormack: they’ll be decimated come election time, Sinn Fein will absolutely romp home
@SB: Don’t be so sure. SF vote last time was primarily a one of protest. Lightning doesn’t strike twice.
@Colm O’Sullivan: If the 3 parties currently in government keep doing what they are at, then I think lightning will strike twice Colm. Government are ALL OVER the place at the moment.
@kevin mc cormack: The minister’s brother owns a pub and can’t sell alcohol as its closed so he doesn’t want anyone else to be able to buy alcohol
Where’s the ‘ 10pm is already too early’ option ?
The TD that came up with this ridiculous suggestion is on €348 a day,
This is what the Irish people voted in to run our country,
You couldn’t make it up.
@John fitzpatrick: The TD’s brother owns a pub too
@John fitzpatrick: sometimes its better then watching stand up on netflix
@Bren: well certainly explains a lot.
People dont need drink l to act irresponsibly .
@Ciaran Dunne: true, but it does help diminish your moral value at the time of doing it
@Garreth mc mahon: 100% agree , I had to moderate my comment to bypass the ” J’s filters” Cheers !
@Ciaran Dunne: yeah it ridiculous they their filter looks for words rather than context
@Garreth mc mahon: and my last one got a toxic rating of 6
i left another comment, law in thailand for years, you cant buy off licence until 5pm supermarkets, etc , so open 5-11pm . buy u can go to a pub from 9am till 2am or late. works fine . i never see drunks in bangkok at 10am on thier “luas” (bts its called).
our culture would not work here, and at the present alone, sipping a few watching sports behind my closed door, should i be banned because of a disgruntled TD, who has a share in his brothers pub who is not making money and the off licences have doubled profits…. should i go on, no minister, feck off.
@michael macken: sang tip and coke.
@Mary Nugent: sorry mary, forgive me but no idea what that means? is it a code or what? or a colloquialism
@Mary Nugent: i googled it, got it ha ha ha. duh and i drank it many times, feck its been a while…
One word (Drugs)
@Leo vodka: that leads to a sentence
I can see the good Friday effect kicking in with this one. Can’t buy drink on Friday so they fill trolleys the Thursday before with more drink than they would ever buy on a normal Friday
Isn’t this guy’s brother a Publican?
Would definitely be a step too far. People could stock up anyway. The next thing would be to close them where publicans would be only too happy to sell their cans at their outrageous mark up.
So people all mob outside the offies before they close? I know the government are new to the idea of planning in advance, but people are usually quite good at planning in advance for things like house parties.
So by his logic if your getting a 24 pack of cans your having a house party? What type of stupid stuff is that. I worked in retail for years, plenty of people buy in bulk when beers are on offer. It’s common sense cause. Imagine been paid 100k a year to come up with utter stupid suggestions. How about something that will actually help, like giving the Gardai powers to issue fines.
One word to summarise Ireland’s Covid response: chaotic.
The queue to the border would be massive..
This will be a bonanza for off licences.. people will stock up and probably drink more.
I’m going to open a “speak easy ” a shibean as its called in Ireland .
@Gerard Heery: Thank you for educating us Irish on what we call something
@Gerard Heery: there already springing up I know of a few lads with illegal pubs
Stop!!! Nanny state.
No. And Gardai shouldn’t be delaying traffic on purpose and 342 k people should not be unemployed due to government & nphet myopic actions.
hospital infections:
Last 24 hours, 25 patients in hospital infected , that’s 104 patients who contracted COVID in hospital in the last 2 weeks.
Convey statistics in a transparent and clear manner instead of more and more restrictions to hide the fact the HSE did not create sufficient beds.
So close earlier, create and more queues rather than opening longer to spread out the number of people going into to off licences.
I know they aren’t worried about queues in off licences but every action they take has an effect.
It’s like reducing public transport capacity the more we lock down. This decreases capacity and leads to fuller public transport.
I don’t see how this would help. People buying slabs are obviously going to pre-planned parties so they’ll just go earlier in the day. Meanwhile the people who spontaneously decide they’d like a beer or glass of wine – I.e. not at parties – they’ll be the ones affected.
So covid loves to party, and now according to the chocolate teapots, it loves alcohol too.
Inept and incompetent at Best.
Corrupt and traitorous at worst.
Ugh. The mammy state. Beer and wine should be 24h as it is.
Preventing alcoholism is more about looking after people and their wellbeing than access to alcohol.
God I’m starting to hate this country, I do wonder what kind of a boring restrictive country my kids will grow up into.
This country has enough problems with drugs being sold openly on the streets..Yes alcohol is also a drug, to close off licences would only added to the mess on our streets. Probation certainly does not work.
I buy usually wine in box of six, to save money. Do you have any problem with that ?
Has the China 19 Flu now infiltrated alcohol??
Next they’ll be telling us only visits to the bathroom per person per household per day as the sewage system is overwhelmed by the amount of people shitting themselves!
We’ll have neighbours opening manholes and reporting any over soilage!
Open them earlier
What’s the point. Won’t stop anything. The people who plan on drinking will just buy it earlier….. Dopes, if they think this will achieve anything
Its already 10PM as it is. That’s early on top of being expensive relative to Europe. Any earlier and the crowds will appear and spread things further.
*Digestif
Instead of closing and cutting everything just introduce proper penalties like fines, suspended and revoked licences etc. And make sure to properly communicate and publicise those incidents to remind people what happens if you don’t act responsibly.
Should be able to keep things open and allow people to go back to work if you punish the people who take no responsibility for their actions instead of everyone else.
They should be closed full stop. There are a huge reason for the spread of Covid. They are fuelling the house parties, communion & confirmation parties.
NOFFLA must have some compromising pictures of government ministers, it’s unbelievable that off licences have been left untouched. Meanwhile pubs & restaurants, which are much more controlled environments, are hit with severe restrictions.
It defies all logic.
@Colm O’Sullivan: You need to try and calm down a bit before you make yourself sick. The majority of people are responsible so therefore, leave the off licences alone.
Maybe you should focus your anger at the meat factories instead? They were riddled with C-19 and nobody said stop. Full steam ahead at all costs seemed to be the message from those factory owners.
@Colm O’Sullivan: Why? I am an adult who likes a bottle of wine over a weekend and dont drink during the week.
I don’t know if I’ve ever used an Off Licence but I think just leave them alone.
Stop with the nanny state laws.
Don’t apply faux alcoholic restrictions on ordinary people.
Stop Catholic Church interference in lawmaking.
Also – legalize cannabis.
No it’s up to the public to stop house parties. If your neighbours are having a large party report them.
Close them down fully.
@Pat Hogan: No
No. Limiting hours of alcohol sales will have no effect on the pandemic. Attempting to do this will only cause an unnecessary backlash against the authorities, just at a time when a high level of buy-in for Covid restrictions is most needed.
Obviously the VFI behind this. After all they strong armed the government into opening the pubs before the country was ready.Not their first time pulling this either, after all it was they lobbied the government into reducing the off licences opening hours the last time
Fine Wines in Thomondgate in Limerick should be closed for good. Never to be allowed operate again.
Covid 19 has had 40K confirmed infections and almost 2K deaths in the republic already. Alcohol is known to lower people’s inhibitions so it should be banned. Of course some will find a way to make it or get it, but making it difficult to get will greatly reduce the spread of the virus and that should override our need to have access to alcohol. Which is more important, drink or health ? It’s a no brainer in my book. I do drink alcohol myself, but would gladly see it gone for the greater good of my fellow citizens.
@John Phelan: Drink, because the nation simply won’t comply with a rule change like that. Its the sort of thing that would bring down the government.
@John Phelan: Thanks but no thanks. I don’t need you to look after my greater good I’m quite capable of making my own decisions.
@Franny Ando: maybe you are, but obviously there are lots who aren’t. Witness the huge increases in infections after the government took their foot off the brakes and allowed food serving bars to open their doors.
@John Phelan: There were very few cases linked to bar restaurants.
Need stay off licence & Should stop sell for age 18 to 30 for up to 2 years for wait coronavirus gone cos young are problem party house & Rave music
Don’t use the word aperitif if you don’t know what it means…
Another government retainer poll. #Loaded
I think if people actually abided by the rules all would be good but the way people are behaving with parties etc I think that stopping all sales of alcohol is going to be necessary in order to regain control over this virus
Those who think they should be closed, deep down in their heart know the only reason they want this is because they feel we arent doing a good job unless we’re all miserable. Enough of this analysis to the microscopic level. We still have to live our lives and yes there is no such thing as new normal, you can’t live in a functional society with this level of restrictions continuously. Either we get a vaccine or learn to live with it. End of story.
This is totally ridiculous
Off licences are not essential business so only close them at level 5.
What’s the opposite of a nanny state?
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