DES MOINES, Iowa — Blank Children's Hospital is completely full with admissions, and the hospital said a majority of their patients are there for respiratory illnesses and the stomach flu.
Doctors are calling it "out of season illnesses," because they typically see a spike in admissions during the winter months rather than spring.
Dr. Joel Waddell, a Pediatric and Infectious Disease Doctor at Blank Children's Hospital, said this is because of the pandemic. During the era of isolation and masking, some children weren't exposed to regular bacteria that most children are.
"What we're seeing is the normal viruses that cause hospitalization in children, the thing that makes it different now is we're seeing it cause hospitalizations at higher rates," Waddell said.
Waddell says they are seeing routine viruses that they currently don't have vaccines for. The hospital continues to see post-viral complications or secondary bacterial infections.
"So what I mean is a kid gets a regular viral infection, and then they get a week or two later, a complicated pneumonia that lands them in the hospital," Waddell said. "A lot of those pneumonias that are bacterial, we can actually vaccinate for."
11-month-old Georgia Manning checked into Blank Children's Hospital on March 3 and tested positive for Rhinovirus.
"It affected her respiratory and they wanted to admit us, and we did not know we would be here for this long," said Brittney Manning, Georgia's mom.
Georgia tested positive for another virus two weeks ago.
"Which didn't seem symptomatic, which that was good, maybe she's able to tolerate the viruses now," Manning said.
As Georgia nears her first birthday, her family is optimistic and hopeful that they will be celebrating at home.
"She spent over a month in the PICU, she just needed the extra lung support, and now she is just growing and doing very well," Manning said.
Waddell said the most important thing to remember is that we don't need to hold back on regular activities, but people should always go to the doctor if they do notice any symptoms of a virus.