Social distancing measures also have an effect on the transmission of other infectious diseases besides Covid, even in children.
This was stated in a study by Harvard Medical School, published by Pediatrics, which saw a sharp reduction for 12 typically childhood pathologies, from influenza to bronchiolitis.
The study was conducted on over 375,000 children who arrived in one of the 80 clinics connected with Boston Children's Hospital, and cases of 12 infections, otitis media, bronchiolitis, colds, laryngotracheobronchitis, gastroenteritis, flu, streptococcal and non-streptococcal pharyngitis were evaluated , pneumonia, sinusitis, skin and urinary tract infections in early 2019 and 2020.
"With the measures of social distancing - explains Jonathan Hatoun, one of the authors -, all diseases have shown a decline. The greatest was seen in respiratory diseases: influenza (99.5%), laryngotracheobronchitis (96.5%) and bronchiolitis (92.9%), which essentially disappeared. The smallest decrease was seen for those of the skin and urinary tract (35%). This makes sense because the latter are not transmissible like the flu ".
While the current 'extreme' distancing measures will no longer exist when the pandemic ends, the authors add, it is possible that some partial measures may still have an effect.
"It is possible that with hand hygiene and some form of distancing we can reduce the number of children who get sick."
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