Late immune maturation of kids may be a legacy of the covid-19 pandemic
The effects of the covid-19 pandemic on the dynamics of respiratory infections in young children, increasing the number of cases. One of the reasons given for this phenomenon was the lack of contact with the outside world necessary to face the coronavirus.
The study was carried out by Professor Magda Carneiro Sampaio from the Instituto da Criança e do Jovens do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP (FMUSP) and researcher Brain Lucas Sousa from the Department of Pediatrics at FMUSP. Both declare that the effects will be resolved over time, however, vaccination and increased attention are necessary to avoid more serious conditions.
Inheritance of the pandemic
The professor comments that this scenario of increased respiratory infections in children has been a cause for great concern in families and pediatric departments. Magda explains that viral diseases are the most common causes of searches for pediatric medical help under the age of five.
“This happens because each virus that the child comes into contact with is a new virus and the immune system is, at this point, similar to the nervous system, it learns and keeps memory”, illustrates the teacher. Thus, the immune system, when reacting after the first contact with the virus, develops a response after the infectious condition, a process known as “immunological maturation”.
In this sense, with the adherence to essential health measures to combat the pandemic, such as social isolation and the shutdown of schools, not only did the coronavirus stop being transmitted, but other respiratory viruses also stopped circulating. And, as the policies for dealing with the pandemic became more flexible, children came into contact with countless previously unknown microorganisms.
“Their immune system did not know any of these viruses and had no memory to face them. It was precisely then that this period with the enormous number of infections began”, informs the professor. She also highlights the outbreak of pediatric infections in Amapá, in May this year.
situation analysis
Researcher Brain Lucas Sousa says that the perception of the delay in immune maturation triggered by the pandemic and its relationship with the increase in respiratory infections in young children was due to the daily work in pediatric hospitals. In addition, he noted a disappearance of the seasonality of diseases, since there was no specific time for the appearance of cases.
“I work in a pediatric emergency room and we noticed this absurd explosion in the number of cases, mainly, of hospitalizations of children due to respiratory causes in 2021 and, especially, in 2022”, declared Sousa. He also compares the large difference between the number of cases in the pre- and post-pandemic, in addition to the hours of waiting in line for care.
Professor Magda also establishes that this overcrowding caused by the delay in immunological maturity is not a Brazilian specificity, but a phenomenon observed worldwide.
Possible solutions
Magda comments that this “immunological debt” will only be paid with time. On the other hand, she warns that part of the situation is also due to the lack of vaccination against certain diseases, such as the flu and pneumococcal vaccine. The teacher clarifies that pneumococcus is a bacterium that can complicate a virus and even pneumonia. “It is very important that people return to vaccine adherence, which has always been so traditional in Brazil and the country has a Ministry of Health that offers an extraordinary vaccine scheme”, she reinforces.
Magda also draws attention to diseases for which there are no vaccines yet, such as the bronchiolitis agent, the syncytial virus, which is very serious for children. Thus, good nutrition and hydration are essential.
According to Sousa, in 2023 it is already possible to observe the effects of the pandemic easing in terms of severity and seasonality of cases and the coming years will be crucial for understanding this scenario. However, there is a predicted trend in the study of “children of the pandemic” having a predisposition to allergies.