In addition to Corona: Another virus is rampant in Bavaria - children's clinics are already at their limit

While the government in Bavaria is taking care of the rising corona numbers, a completely different virus is raging in the children's clinics.

Beds are getting scarce.

Munich - As if the corona virus * wasn't enough, another pathogen is currently rife in Bavaria.

As is now the case with the fourth Corona wave, children and adolescents are particularly affected.

The so-called RS virus can be life-threatening, especially for the very young.

Children's clinics in Bavaria have been working at the limit for weeks and the situation does not seem to be easing.

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RS and cold viruses circulate among children and adolescents in Bavaria

There are hardly any free beds left in Bavaria, warns Dominik Ewald, state chairman of the professional association of paediatricians.

"All clinics are at the attack," he told the dpa.

However: “Nobody has yet declared an absolute state of emergency.

The supply is not endangered because we can still manage it somehow. ”But how much longer?

Various infections have been circulating among the youngest since Whitsun - especially the RS virus since the end of the summer holidays.

"Now there are also the various cold viruses, including RSV, for example, influenza and rhinoviruses," said Ewald.

The paediatricians expected a wave of colds to come.

The scale is grueling, however.

“We expected this wave of the RS virus to come.

It is relatively clear that now that the children are allowed to deal with each other again and we have three age groups who meet in kindergartens and who had no exchange of infections due to the lockdown *, three times as many children get sick as usual ", explained Ewald.

"Now they all go through what normally only one year would go through at once."

Cold viruses: Infants and young children in particular are at great risk

In itself, cold viruses - which also include the RS virus (respiratory syncytial virus) - are easy to cope with. “Healthy children can get through an infection like this.” The only problem at the moment is that many children catch one infection after the other and are then too weak to be able to counter the RS virus much. This can be particularly dangerous for the very little ones. Infants and young children can develop severe pneumonia. According to the Robert Koch Institute *, 0.2 percent of sick children die without a known increased risk, a good one percent of sick premature babies and more than five percent of affected children with congenital heart defects.

Since no antibiotic can help against the virus, doctors can only treat the symptoms.

Infections that are less severe are usually not recognized as such, which is why the virus, which has been around for a long time, is not known by name to many laypeople.

The supposedly harmless cough can certainly have consequences: "It is fatal that the infection can cause certain changes in the lungs, which can lead to long-term problems," explained Ewald.

The sick later suffered more frequently from asthma or an over-sensitivity of the bronchi.

List of rubric lists: © Sebastian Gollnow / dpa / Symbolbild