Journalism of Courage
PGI study on lower respiratory tract infections among children during Covid-19 earns laurel
Lower respiratory infections (LRIs) are the commonest cause of mortality in children less than five years of age and the majority are because of respiratory viruses such as influenza, RSV, swine flu etc.
Dr Ishani Bora, Associate Professor, Department of Virology, and the team have bagged the second-best poster award for her original research work on “Paradigm Shift in Respiratory Viruses Causing Lower Respiratory Tract Infections among Paediatric Patients during Covid-19 Pandemic”.
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The award was presented to her at the recently concluded 45th annual conference of the Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists (MICROCON 2022) held at Bhubaneswar. Lower respiratory infections (LRIs) are the commonest cause of mortality in children less than five years of age and the majority are because of respiratory viruses such as influenza, RSV, swine flu etc.
The study was focused to see changes in the pattern of viruses in children with LRIS before the pandemic and during the pandemic period. Interestingly, it has been observed that there was a drastic reduction in viral infections due to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) during the Delta and Omicron waves of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, it appears that SARS-CoV-2 played a substantial role in the existence of other viral pathogens known to cause severe respiratory infections in children either by altering the immunity or by a physical intervention which needs to be elucidated to understand the disease pathogenesis and virus-to-virus interactions.
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