Wave of respiratory virus infections overwhelms children's hospital wards in Sofia and Gotse Delchev

Children's hospital wards in the capital city of Sofia have been overwhelmed. The paediatric ward at the General Hospital in the town of Gotse Delchev, where children with viral infections are admitted every day, is also filled up. To cope with the workload, doctors are calling for a flu epidemic to be declared in the district of Blagoevgrad.

It turns out that the main cause is the known respiratory syncytial virus. The increase in flu infections also complicates the situation. In most children's wards and clinics in the capital the situation is alarming. Some are overwhelmed, others have a few vacancies, but the situation is dynamic.

For doctors at Pirogov emergency hospital, where all beds are occupied, this year is comparatively more difficult than last year. In the paediatrics clinic at Lozenets Hospital there are also no beds available. In the municipal hospitals in the capital, about half of the beds are occupied. And although the situation at Alexandrovska Hospital has calmed down a bit in the past two days, the workload there is still high.

There are no vacant beds in the paediatric ward at Pirogov hospital. If one becomes available, it is taken by another child in need within the hour.

Assoc.prof. Iren Tsocheva, head of the paediatric ward at "Pirogov" hospital explained that they are admitting the most serious cases, at some point it was the children, who needed to be put on oxygen. And the most severe cases are in the group of the youngest infants, she said.

The situation has been extremely tense for a month now.

Iren Tsocheva: "At the moment we are in a state of a triple epidemic - respiratory syncytial virus, influenza virus and Covid, which continues to circulate."

The situation does not look any different at Alexandrovska Hospital. The children's clinic beds are full.

Yana Andonova, a doctor at the paediatric clinic of Aleksandrovska Hospital: “The patients come with symptoms of a sharp increase in body temperature, cough, runny nose, fatigue, the high body temperature often lasts 2-3 days and in some cases people are actually worried about the high temperature above 39 degrees per Celsius”.

Doctors at Alexandrovska sometimes have to refer children to other hospitals.

Yana Andonova: "What we recommend is to do a quick flu test, to observe the child's condition - whether the child is eating, whether the cough is getting worse, whether there are breathing difficulties and seek medical help accordingly."

In order to bear the workload and not to turn patients away, doctors at the General Hospital in Gotse Delchev converted wards. In the children's ward, there has not been a single vacant bed since the beginning of the year.

Petar Filibev, director of the "Ivan Skenderov" Hospital in Gotse Delchev: There are wards in which the occupancy rate is over 90% almost throughout the year".

The Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases confirm more and more influenza strains. The number of children with respiratory syncytial virus is also increasing.

Prof. Iva Hrstova, Head of the Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases: "The course of the infection is severe and has the capacity for serious complications. It mainly affects the lower respiratory tract, the bronchi, the bronchioliths, i.e. the smallest branches of the bronchi, and in fact can quickly even lead to respiratory failure."

The situation with the spread of COVID-19 is currently calm.