“I’ve never seen so many viruses in children so frequently and so severely,” said Dr. Tehseen Ladha, who has worked in pediatrics for more than a decade and said this is the worst time she’s seen — before and after the pandemic. . “All my clinics are kids with respiratory viruses, with stomach flu, and a lot of them are kids who have virus after virus. They’ve been sick since school started.” Alberta Health Services said Friday there has been an increase in respiratory illnesses over the past week, resulting in an increase in respiratory outbreaks in schools, particularly in the Edmonton zone. The health authority defines “outbreak” status as a threshold of 10 percent total absence and includes all respiratory illnesses. Story continues below ad Edmonton Zone schools saw an increase last week from 22 last week (Oct. 27) to 65 schools currently in an outbreak — compared to 14 in the Calgary Zone, five in the Central Zone, 12 in the North Zone and two in South Zone. AHS said an increase in respiratory illnesses is expected during the winter, but is seeing more cases than usual for this time of year, indicating an early start to the respiratory illness season. 1:55 ‘Tripledemic’: Flu and respiratory viruses return amid surge in COVID cases Ladha said it was a bad fall for viruses like influenza, the common cold and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Respiratory syncytial virus is one of the most common viral infections of childhood, especially during the colder months, the AHS said, adding that while it is not considered a risk to the general public, nearly all children will have an RSV infection by age two. years. Story continues below ad “Usually we don’t see things like this until winter falls, and usually even then not too bad. It’s definitely out of the norm. And it certainly seems to affect many, many of the children and families that I’ve seen.”

		Read more: What is RSV?  Here’s what you need to know about the virus as cases rise in Canada 		
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			What is RSV?  Here’s what you need to know about the virus as cases rise in Canada

Since the beginning of the school year, the Edmonton Public School Board’s truancy rate has been steadily increasing. On Thursday, the Edmonton public said 8.73 percent of its student population was sick with either COVID-19 or another illness — about 9,540 students. The Edmonton Catholic School Board said the sickness absence rate for Thursday was 10.4 per cent, or about 4,700 students. That’s more than 14,000 children stuck at home due to illness, and Wing Li with Support Our Students Alberta, a non-profit public education advocacy group, is concerned. Since students are not regularly tested, it is not known exactly what is happening. “As a parent, you’re frustrated because you’re just navigating it on your own and you don’t know if it’s normal, right? “You don’t know if getting so sick in one season is normal. You know, maybe because you’ve had COVID before — or is it COVID again? We don’t know and there is no medical guidance.” Story continues below ad Starting this summer, acetaminophen and ibuprofen products for infants and children have been in limited supply in retail stores, pharmacies and hospitals across Canada. 1:35 Alberta pharmacies facing shortages of certain children’s drugs Li said the lack of children’s Tylenol for a month is also stressful for parents, along with what she said is a lack of guidance from the province and health officials as more and more children get sick: “It’s just a confluence of factors that cause a perfect storm of anxiety and stress.” Current trend

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“Knowing that your kids are behind in school every time they get sick is frustrating.”

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AHS said the early and brutal start to the season is likely due in part to the fact that these diseases have been effectively suppressed in the past two years due to COVID restrictions. AHS said similar trends are being seen in Canada and other countries. Story continues below ad Ladha has her own theories, one of which is that there are fewer public health measures in schools, allowing disease to spread more quickly than in recent years. Another hypothesis: lower immunity after coronavirus infection. “Covid affects the immune system and there is some scientific data on that. And the thinking is, you know, once you have COVID-19, maybe you’re more susceptible to other viral infections.”

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Ladha said viruses also change — that’s why a new flu vaccine is made every year and why bivalent vaccines for COVID-19 are now available — so diseases could hit people harder than normal. “They come out at times when we are not used to them coming out. And so we’re already seeing flu, we’re already seeing RSV. These are things we wouldn’t normally see until later in the year.” AHS said the increase in viral outbreaks in schools may also be due, in part, to parents keeping their children home when they are sick more now than in the past. Lee said this is stressful for families, knowing their children are being left behind. “Students who aren’t healthy don’t learn, right? So, as well as making up for lost time, they’re also dealing with constant absences from school due to illness and it just needs more support and recognition that this is happening.” Story continues below ad

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Despite clear medical evidence that it helps prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses such as COVID, the flu and colds, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the province will not allow further mandates to cover children in Alberta’s K-12 education system. Alberta students have not been required to wear masks to school since February, when the government lifted school mask mandates. Last week, Smith said she wants to make sure they don’t have to wear them again. “We need leadership. There is absolutely no guidance,” Lee said. “The province left us behind to face this unknown, navigating the unknown.”

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Lee said going back to pre-pandemic programming isn’t right, and educators and families need more support and information. “It’s so chaotic and there’s no stability,” he said. “What do we need to fix to be able to handle this — if this is going to happen year after year from now on?” Story continues below ad Supporting our students Alberta has heard reports of some schools combining classes because staff are also out with illnesses. 2:09 Canada’s ER crisis: Doctors urge governments to find solutions to ‘dangerous’ wait times Alberta Health Services said pediatric emergency departments are very busy and in a statement to Global News, urged people to take the following precautions to limit the spread of these diseases: Not listed? Wearing a mask. Story continues below ad “That’s a glaring absence, isn’t it?” said Landa. “Sure, hand washing is important, but we’ve learned during the two-plus years of a pandemic that so many viral diseases are airborne.”

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Ladha said that unless students wear masks or ventilation upgrades are made in schools, we will continue to see viruses circulating at high rates, infecting children and causing them to miss school. “They’re not going to know if they’re sick at home. Well, you know, I personally strongly encourage the use of masks in school, especially when viruses are circulating at high rates in the community,” he said, adding that it doesn’t have to be continuous — but it would be prudent to do so now. . “Until we find better ways to clean public indoor air, we are…