Babies who have been "cooped up" during lockdown are at risk from viruses which never normally cause issues in summer months, parents have been warned.
Alder Hey Children's Hospital has urged people to be on the lookout for symptoms of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the main cause of bronchiolitis, which is normally mild but in rare cases can cause pneumonia type breathing difficulties.
Very young or premature babies, or those with underlying health conditions, are particularly at risk and have been at the heart of spikes in hospital admissions first noticed in New Zealand and Australia, which are now in their winter months.
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Worryingly Alder Hey and other children's hospitals in the UK have noticed an unprecedented rise in hospitalisations during summer months, when admissions related to RSV would normally be around zero.
Dr Urmi Das, divisional director of medicine at Alder Hey, told the ECHO the hospital has around 15 babies in the high dependency unit with the virus and a further 19 babies or toddlers admitted to wards.
Dr Das said: "My background is a paediatrician and I have really never seen RSV in summer actually.
"At the moment this is across the UK, it's not just at Alder Hey, but we are seeing more and more patients coming to the Emergency Department (ED) with RSV.
"RSV is really quite a mild illness, and it is only really if you are less than two years old it can become quite serious where you would need hospital admission, and in general children do get better.
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"But what we have seen is that there are more ED attendances and at the current time we have about 15 of our patients in High Dependency with a background of RSV, and we have 19 patients admitted to the ward.
"Week on week the numbers we have seen in ED is increasing so clearly it is prevalent in the community."
Dr Das said that pre-covid she would not expect to see more than one or two cases of children admitted to hospital with RSV during summer months.
Public health officials have suggested the rise is due to a "immunity deficit", caused by the lack of normal social mixing during the coronavirus pandemic meaning children have had less exposure to normal childhood viruses.
Dr Das said parents of babies under two years old should seek immediate medical attention if they notice serious breathing problems, particularly when the movement of a child's chest is not synchronised with the movement of its tummy while taking breaths.
Other warning signs are if a child appears drowsy, or has gone off feeding, and a full list of symptoms is available on the NHS Choices website here.
A spokesman for Alder Hey also added: "Signs include breathing very fast, reduced feeding, runny nose, fever and sometimes wheezing. A lot of children are well cared for at home and if concerned the first step should be contacting NHS 111 who will be able to assess.
"Very small or pre term infants may find it more difficult to cope with RSV and each year some need care in hospital. At Alder Hey we have plans in place to enable us to care for children with RSV and have ensured we are able to provide this care to more children if needed."
Alder Hey is also concerned over a large rise in A&E attendances, with the hospital seeing an average of around 230 patients per day and as high as 280, and waiting times sometimes reaching 10 hours.
Dr Das said many of these admissions, as many as 50%, do not necessarily need to be seen as an emergency, and the trust is working to try and reduce numbers.
A notice on the hospital's website advises parents and guardians that from Monday any child whose attendance is not deemed an emergency will be re-directed elsewhere.
Alder Hey is working with Mersey Care to provide extra appointment slots in walk-in centres across the city, while online information videos and efforts to provide video consultations are also aiming to reduce pressure.
Asked what is driving the rise in ED attendances, Dr Das said: "I have my own theory, I think some of these children were born during Covid and have not been exposed to the normal childhood illnesses, you normally may take them to playgroups and obviously some go to nursery so they have not been exposed to normal virus cough and colds.
"So now they are exposed to a new environment even mild coughs and colds, mentally it is important to remember for 16 to 18 months parents have been very isolated, so babies were born to new mums possibly and you are very anxious and may wish to come in when you maybe don't need an ED consultation.
"Alder Hey is very much on to this because we feel it is our responsibility, even though ED is for emergencies only, to work with our partners and support parents across the region."
More information and advice for new parents is available on the Alder Hey website.
