Thousands of kids were home sick from school in Edmonton this past week and Alberta Health Services says respiratory illnesses are on the rise earlier than normal in the region.
“I’ve never seen this many viruses in children so frequently and so severe,” said Dr. Tehseen Ladha, who has worked in pediatrics for over a decade and said this is the worst season she’s seen — before and after the pandemic.
“All my clinics are children with respiratory viruses, with stomach flus, and many of them are children that have virus after virus. They’ve been sick since school has started.”
Alberta Health Services on Friday said it has seen an increase in respiratory illnesses in the past week, resulting in an increase in respiratory outbreaks at schools, particularly in the Edmonton Zone.
The health authority defines its “outbreak” status as a threshold of 10 per cent total absenteeism and includes all respiratory illnesses.
Edmonton Zone schools have seen a spike in the past week from 22 last week (Oct. 27) to 65 schools currently on outbreak — compared to 14 in Calgary Zone, five in Central Zone, 12 in North Zone, and two in South Zone.
AHS said an increase in respiratory illnesses is expected over the winter, however it is experiencing more cases than it normally would at this time of year, indicating an early start to the respiratory illness season.
Ladha said it has been a bad fall for viruses like influenza, the common cold and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Respiratory syncytial virus is one of the most common viral infections of childhood, especially during the colder months, AHS said, adding while not considered a risk to the general public, almost all children will have an RSV infection by the time they are two.
“Usually we don’t see things like this until the thick of winter, and usually even then not quite this bad. It’s certainly out of the norm. And it’s certainly seems to be impacting many, many of the children and families that I’ve been seeing.”
Since the beginning of the school year, the Edmonton Public School Board illness absentee rate has been creeping up.
On Thursday, Edmonton public said 8.73 per cent of its student population was out sick with either COVID-19 or another illness — that’s about 9,540 students.
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The Edmonton Catholic School Board said its absentee rate due to illness for Thursday was 10.4 per cent, or approximately 4,700 students.
That’s more than 14,000 kids stuck at home due to illness and it worries Wing Li with Support Our Students Alberta, a non-profit public education advocacy group.
Since students are not routinely tested, it’s not known exactly what’s going around.
“As a parent, you’re frustrated because you’re just navigating it on your own and you don’t know if it’s normal, right?
“You don’t know if getting sick so much in one season is normal. You know, is it because of having caught COVID before — or is it COVID again? We don’t know and there’s no medical guidance.”
Since the summer, infant and children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen products have been in limited supply in retail outlets, pharmacies and hospitals across Canada.
Li said the month-long children’s Tylenol shortage is also stressful for parents, along with what she said is a lack of guidance from the province and health officials as more and more kids get sick: “It’s just a confluence of factors that make for the perfect storm of anxiety and stress.”
“Knowing that your kids are behind in school every time they get sick is frustrating.”
AHS said the early and brutal start to the season is likely due in part to the fact these illnesses were effectively suppressed over the past two years due to COVID restrictions. AHS said similar trends are being seen across Canada and in other countries.
Ladha has her own theories, one being there are fewer public health measures in schools, allowing diseases to spread more quickly than in recent years. Another hypothesis: lower immunity after a coronavirus infection.
“COVID affects the immune system, and there has been some scientific data about this. And the thought is, you know, once you’ve had COVID, perhaps you’re more susceptible to getting other viral infections.”
Ladha said viruses also change — which is why there is a new flu shot each year and why COVID-19 bivalent vaccines are now available — so illnesses could be hitting people harder than normal.
“They’re coming out in seasons we’re not used to them coming out. And so we’re already seeing influenza, we’re already seeing RSV. Those are things that we usually wouldn’t see until later in the year.”
AHS said the increase in school virus outbreaks may also be caused, in part, due to parents keeping their children home when sick more now than in the past. Li said that is stressful for families, knowing their children are falling behind.
“Students that aren’t healthy aren’t learning, right? So on top of making up for lost time, they’re also dealing now with continued absences from school due to illness and there just needs to be more support and acknowledgement that that’s happening.”
Despite the clear medical evidence masking works to help prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses like COVID, the flu and colds, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the province will not permit any further masking mandates of children in Alberta’s K-12 education system.
Alberta students haven’t been required to wear masks in school since back in February, when the government lifted school mask mandates.
Last week, Smith said she wants to make sure they won’t ever have to wear them again.
“We need leadership. There’s no guidance whatsoever,” Li said. “The province has left us behind to deal with this unknown, navigating the unknown.”
Li said returning to pre-pandemic programming is not right, and educators and families need more support and information.
“It’s so chaotic and there’s no stability,” she said.
“What do we need to fix so that we can handle this — if this is going to happen year after year from now on?”
Support Our Students Alberta has heard reports of some schools combining classes because the staff are also out with illnesses.
Alberta Health Services said pediatric emergency departments are very busy and in a statement to Global News, urged people to take the following precautions to limit the spread of these illnesses:
- To prevent spread of any illness, wash hands frequently using soap and warm water
- Do not share items that come in contact with the mouth, including water bottles, drinks, or eating utensils
- Cover your coughs and sneezes with your elbow, not your hand. If you use a tissue, discard immediately, and wash your hands thoroughly
- Prevent any visitors that might be ill from visiting your child
- If you have a cough, sneeze, sore throat, runny nose, and/or fever, it is recommended you stay home until you are well
Not on the list? Wearing a mask.
“That’s a glaring absence, right?” Ladha said. “Certainly, hand washing is important, but we’ve learnt over the course of over two years of a pandemic that so many viral illnesses are transmitted through the air.”
Ladha said unless students wear masks or upgrades are made to ventilation in schools, we’re going to continue to see viruses circulating at high rates, infecting children and making them miss school.
“They’re not going to learn if they’re sick at home. So, you know, I personally strongly encourage the use of masks in school, especially when viruses are circulating at high rates in the community,” she said, adding it doesn’t need to be continuous — but would be prudent to do right now.
“Until we find better ways to clean indoor public air, we’re just sharing all our germs by breathing and coughing in the same space.”
As the temperature drops and people spend more time indoors, there’s worry the situation will only get worse.
“Inevitably, as winter progresses, we see more and more viral infections that are more severe so I anticipate an increase in E.R. visits, hospitalizations, pediatric hospitalizations and children being sick and off school.”
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