Immunity debt: Does it really make children sick?

The COVID-19 pandemic may be in the rearview mirror, but Europe is still grappling with its consequences. For example, in Denmark, number of children and adolescents with mycoplasma pneumonia (a bacterium that causes it) respiratory infections – tripled in the 2023-2024 season Compared to pre-pandemic years. Hospitalizations also increased 2.6 times.

But Danish children’s infections were not more severe than in previous years. more people got sickThey did not do more than expected.

It has also been registered in countries such as England, Germany and France. unusual increases in infections such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in recent years.

Dr., a pulmonologist at Imperial College London and an expert on influenza and RSV. Peter Openshaw told Euronews Health that “there has been a rebound in some of these infections that had not been circulating significantly for a winter or two.” Come back pretty strong.

This is because Europe is probably still paying an “immunity debt”“Due to the drop in infections during the COVID-19 pandemic. So what exactly is immunity debt and how worried should parents be as we head into winter?

What is immunity debt?

Early in the pandemic, non-COVID illnesses declined in areas where people stayed home, stayed away from others, washed their hands frequently and took other steps to avoid exposure to viruses.

Various viruses such as Some strains of flu have disappeared entirely during this period, but others reemerged after restrictions were lifted and people began to socialize more frequently. Some scientists call this “immunity debt” which is still being paid.

Dr. D., an infectious diseases physician and scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “It was good to reduce the burden on hospitals during the height of COVID, to go into debt for that,” Amesh Adalja told Euronews Health in the US.

Why is this statement controversial?

The term “duty of immunity” is sometimes used to indicate: Natural infections are better for our immune system He said vaccines and pandemic-era restrictions were ineffective because people continued to get sick later.

However, Openshaw said these ideas were “clearly wrong” and added: public health restrictions “saved many, thousands, possibly millions of lives”. On the contrary, the rise in infections following the pandemic was largely inevitable, researchers say.

VSR is a good example. This is a common virus that spreads through close contact and usually causes mild cold-like symptoms. Most young children get it by age two.

But as babies are born and kept away from others during the pandemic, They had never been exposed to the virusyes, that created something opportunity to expand Once the restrictions are lifted.

This may not be a bad thing because RSV is much more dangerous for babies under six months. “Every man owed a debt to RSVand it was just postponed. The collector came,” Adalja explains.

“The idea that people will somehow be free of these respiratory viruses (these endemic respiratory viruses) forever is wrong.”

Does the immunity debt explain all increases in infections?

Although the immunity debt dynamic applies to many viruses, some may be experiencing a resurgence For reasons other than immunity debt.

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For example, the increase in whooping cough cases is likely seasonal, according to Adalja. Whooping cough epidemics usually occur every three to five years, but France reports worst epidemic 25 years into the beginning of this year.

How does immunity debt affect the public and hospitals?

In 2021, European pediatric associations called for strengthening childhood vaccination programs to eliminate the immune debt, and from 2023 RSV vaccines are available for pregnant women and older adults. in the European Union. They were launched in the UK this year.

“Vaccines are a great way to fill the gap in immune stimulation left by the reduced circulation rate of the virus,” Openshaw said.

Especially the increase caused by diseases immunity debt or cyclical increases– Being affected by too many patients at the same time may pose a bigger problem for healthcare systems.

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Many are facing shortages of healthcare personnel and have little capacity to deal with these problems. Waves of patients with childhood infections and pneumonia in adults.

“We continue to see a high number of hospitalizations and serious illnesses due to these viruses because they are circulating at a higher level than before,” Openshaw says.