Delhi, June 19: Using masks and maintain social distancing due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis may have saved many, but they have also weakened the immune system in children, belief experts in England.
According to the experts, children for the last 15 months or so have not had great encounters with viral pathogens, causing seasonal flu. As a result, their bodies have not been able to build the immunity to fight the bugs in the post-pandemic days.
Virologists are also concerned about Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), a virus that leads to serious lung infection, and sometimes even death, in children under the age of one. Also, there’s no vaccine for it, reported.
Experts said that in the pre-Covid days, RSV brought more children to the hospital than any other seasonal bug. However, masks and social distancing kept children away from contracting the disease during the pandemic.
But with a return to normalcy, RSV may turn more fatal. Children will catch the disease again because masks, social distancing, and other Covid-related protocols will eventually be abolished.
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According to the report, more than 30,000 babies and children under the age of five were annually admitted to hospitals in the United Kingdom because of RSV before the pandemic.
William Irving, a professor of virology from the University of Nottingham echoed the view and said, “We didn’t see flu last winter, so if it comes back this coming winter, it may be particularly nasty.”
