Until this Tuesday (31), at least twelve states and the Federal District registered more than 80% occupancy of beds in the general Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for children, according to a survey by the Ministry of Health. CNN Agency .
Of these, three are at 100% occupancy and register a queue for hospitalization: Mato Grosso do Sul, Santa Catarina and Amapá, with two, twelve and four children waiting for a bed in each state, respectively.
Another five states and the Federal District are more than 90% occupied: Tocantins, Espírito Santo, Ceará, Rondônia and Mato Grosso. Tocantins, for example, attributes the high rate to cases related to respiratory diseases, such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza (common flu), adenovirus and Covid-19.
With an occupancy rate of over 80%, there are records in Bahia (which only has the rate of Covid-19 beds), Goiás (which despite the occupation, has 20 children waiting for hospitalization), Pará and Acre.
Rio de Janeiro, which has 77% of its beds occupied and is in the process of opening to new ones, reported that there are 25 children in the state queue in the process of being regulated to be referred to ICU beds, and that currently, pediatric care represents twice as many adult consultations in the daily average of flu-syndrome records made at Emergency Care Units (UPAs).
“At this time of year, most hospitalizations are caused by bronchiolitis, associated with the fact that children have been isolated for a long time and out of collective life during the Covid-19 pandemic”, he informed.
In São Paulo, where adult hospitalizations increased by 118% in the last month and the moving average of cases by Covid-19 increased by 106% in just one week, the pediatric occupation, due to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), is at 45%. According to the State Health Department, an increase in SARS hospitalizations during this period of the year is common.
The states of Roraima and Paraíba reported that the regularization of pediatric beds belongs to the municipalities, and Minas Gerais is still updating the calculation bases.
Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Piauí, Sergipe and Rio Grande do Norte did not respond to the questioning.
Basic care helps prevent respiratory diseases
Source: CNN Brasil
