In the first months of life, a simple cold can become a real danger. The infant organization, still under construction, does not always have the weapons necessary to cope with everyday microbes. Among them, some respiratory viruses arouse growing attention from researchers and pediatricians. The syncytial respiratory virus, long associated with specific cases, is today a much broader threat than what medicine supposed so far.
Infants under the age of three months are the most vulnerable. Their still immature immune systems are struggling to combat a respiratory infection which, in an adult, would go unnoticed. The peak of danger occurs around eight weeks of life, a period when the immunity inherited from the mother begins to decrease while the body of the baby does not yet produce enough autonomous defenses.
By analyzing the causes of prolonged hospitalization, admissions to intensive care and death, researchers from Karolinska Institutet have highlighted aggravating factors. Being born in winter, share your home with brothers and sisters under three years old or having a low birth weight multiplies the risks of severe evolution of infection. According to the study published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, these factors increase the probability of a serious outcome up to four times.
Why our gestures of affection must evolve in the face of infectious risk
In infants, a respiratory virus spreads with disconcerting ease. Simply leaning to embrace a baby is enough to transmit a viral infection, even in the absence of visible symptoms in adults. In many families, this invisible risk is often unknown, because we consider physical affection as a natural reflex, sometimes even therapeutic.
The British academic Primrose Freestone, a specialist in clinical microbiology, stresses that the kiss exposes newborns to dreaded pathogens. She recalls in The Conversation that the skin, eyes or oral mucous membranes of very young children do not yet offer sufficient protection in the face of agents such as herpes virus or certain stumps of E. coli. In healthy adults, these pathogens generally do not cause any symptoms, but in a baby, they can trigger sepsis or meningitis.
The problem does not only reside in respiratory viruses. Bacterial infections, often transmitted by contact, are just as pernicious. Streptococcal, enterobacteria, herpetic virus groups … The list of silent threats is long. And none warns before acting. In light of these observations, some pediatricians recommend limiting or even completely avoiding kisses on the face or hands of newborns during their first weeks of life.
An extended medical response to brake the syncytial respiratory virus
The upheaval of risk profiles led the health authorities to review their strategy. In Sweden, where the data is the most complete to date, a preventive processing based on monoclonal antibodies is now offered to all newborns as soon as they were released from maternity during the RSV season. This medication, comparable to a passive vaccine, would reduce up to 80% of serious forms depending on the estimates of researchers.
Until recently, this type of treatment was only intended for a minority of children with severe pathologies. But as the doctor Samuel Rhedin of Karolinska Institutet said, the evolution of knowledge requires expanding this coverage to all infants, regardless of their initial state of health. Such a measure could avoid thousands of hospitalizations each year, by limiting transmission in nurseries, maternities and multi-child homes.
In parallel, health professionals insist on the importance of responsible behavior on the part of adults in contact with babies. Wash your hands, postpone a visit in the event of colds, cover any oral wound or fever button, wear a mask in case of doubt … So many simple reflexes that can save lives. Because if the immunization progresses, it does not replace elementary prudence. And in a world where viruses circulate freely, love sometimes proves better at a distance.
