With temperatures dropping and seasonal maladies setting in, paediatric departments in hospitals are becoming saturated with patients as the result of an “unprecedented” bronchiolitis epidemic, which has also affected much of France.
Bronchiolitis, not to be confused with bronchitis, is a common lung infection among young children and infants, targeting the smaller airways (bronchioles).
The situation is particularly difficult in the capital, where no more beds were available on Tuesday at the three major Brussels hospitals, namely Saint-Luc university clinic, CHU Saint-Pierre, and at UZ Brussel.
At the Saint-Pierre hospital in central Brussels, the last six children's beds were filled on Monday. “Paediatric emergency rooms are completely saturated as a result of bronchiolitis,” Nathalie Schaar, communications officer at the hospital, told Belga News Agency.
UZ Brussel is experiencing the same situation, having hit “peak period” for respiratory infections.
Unusually severe
“It’s the classic cycle: with the approach of winter there is an increase in respiratory diseases,” explained Maud Rouille, spokesperson for the Fabiola Children’s University Hospital.
Concern among healthcare workers is growing. According to Stéphane Moniotte, head of the paediatrics department at the Saint-Luc clinics, this epidemic is “unprecedented”, far exceeding the number of patients seen in previous years.
“These patients are oxygen-dependent which means that emergency rooms are quickly overwhelmed,” he said.
According to the advice of the British National Health Service (NHS), parents can help protect their children from bronchiolitis by washing their children’s hands frequently, wiping down surfaces, and keeping young children away from anyone with a cold or flu, especially if the child is vulnerable.
Echoes of Covid
In Belgium, the epidemic is accentuated by an acute shortage of nursing staff, which has plagued the health sector since before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are really in difficulty,” said Moniotte. “Dozens of young patients under the age of two with respiratory distress arrive in the waiting rooms and it is difficult to find space for them."
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Parallels have been drawn with the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, except it is primarily an issue afflicting the very young rather than the elderly: “We are facing the same problems as during Covid: the shortage of nurses has not been resolved, there is still a lack of hospital places and the number of patients is significant,” Moniotte noted.
At the Saint-Luc clinic, doctors are being forced to transfer some patients to other locations in order to deal with the most serious cases.
In France, this bronchiolitis epidemic has been raging for several weeks. French newspaper Le Monde blames the severe outbreak on a limited circulation of respiratory viruses during the Covid-19 pandemic creating an “immunity debt” among children, meaning they are more susceptible to viruses this year.
