Over 90% occupancy is currently at the Makarios Hospital, and mainly children with respiratory infections are hospitalized, the Director of the Pediatric Department, Dr. Avraam Elias, told KYPE, pointing out that this year respiratory infections have increased compared to last year.
As he said, many children are hospitalized, noting that there is a high turnover of cases with admissions varying from six to eight, perhaps more per day, while at the same time there are as many discharges.
"They are mainly children who suffer from a respiratory infection, i.e. 7 out of 10 children who we hospitalize during this period have respiratory infections with the predominant infection being the RSV virus, which causes acute bronchiolitis in infants, for this reason most of the children who are hospitalized , more than half are infants, children under the age of 12 months,” he said.
The second most common infection, he continued, is lower respiratory infections, microbial pneumonia or viral pneumonia. "We also have children with upper respiratory infections while mostly infants under 12 months are hospitalized with acute bronchiolitis," he explained.
Dr. Ilias clarified that acute bronchiolitis is the main cause of admissions of children to the pediatric wards in the winter months as the peak is usually observed in January and February.
"Therefore we cannot say now that we are at the peak of this pandemic. There is expected to be a decrease during this period due to school closures and with schools re-opening in a week or two we are expected to see an increase in incidents. It happens every year, this year there is an increase in incidents compared to last year, however, it is something that is manageable," he added.
Usually, he explained, children present with fever, cough, difficulty breathing, the cough is persistent, they may have a runny nose, anorexia and sometimes gastrointestinal disorders for this reason, he emphasized, children need to be hospitalized in the pediatric wards to get the corresponding treatment.
The other thing we're seeing, he pointed out, is an increase in newborns and infants under 2 months because that, he said, is a special age group because of the immaturity of their immune systems.
"We appeal to parents who have children in this age group to be careful and not to come into contact with other people especially older siblings who carry and transmit these pathogens to younger children," he said.
Regarding cases of coronavirus, Dr. Ilias mentioned that four children are currently hospitalized. "Although in recent weeks we have had sporadic admissions with coronavirus, recently there has been a small increase in admissions and this reflects the increase in the general population of the disease, and they are mainly young children, infants, with symptoms, fever and anorexia", he added .