A new surge in cases of the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is being reported within the Mid-West health region of Ireland, latter which covers counties North Tipperary, Clare, and Limerick.
Concerns are being expressed that this will now place even further pressure on University Hospital Limerick (UHL), which continues to remain the most overcrowded emergency medical facility within the Irish State.
A specialist in Public Health Medicine, Dr Marie Casey; latter currently working on COVID-19 health protection response at regional level, has stated; “What’s unique about this year is that we’re having all these seasons of these different infections at the same time, so normally there will be different patterns and there will be a bit of staggering. But what we’re seeing is that there are high numbers of all the different types of infection at the same time, and that obviously is putting increased burden on our region.”
Dr Casey said that RSV is mostly affecting children, with many of them older than would normally be seen, and there is a drift into the older population as well, which she confirmed was different from previous years.
Go back to basics.
Dr Casey is urging people to go back to basics again and not to socialise – go to work or school when sick – continue hand hygiene, and wear face masks, particularly if feeling unwell.
Yesterday, Monday, January 9th, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said there were 489 patients on trolleys waiting for admission to a hospital bed, with University Hospital Limerick the worst affected with 48 patients waiting.
Today, Tuesday, January 10th, there are 573 patients with Covid-19 in our Republics hospitals according to the Health Service Executive (HSE).
Over the past 14 days, 309 cases of Covid-19 were reported in Co. Tipperary, however, these are only the reported cases and the figure is most likely to be much higher.
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