Of the total paediatric patients visiting the out-patient department of the Chabahil-based Om Hospital and Research Center these days, around 60 percent are those suffering from fever, cough and common cold.

Doctors at the hospital said that some children who have been complaining of those conditions have been found suffering from pneumonia too.

“The number of small children suffering from fever, cough and common cold has risen sharply at our hospital in the last few weeks,” said Dr Rita Hamal, a consultant paediatrician at the hospital. “Seasonal flu might be responsible for that.”

Winter is the flu season in which thousands of people across the country get infected with multiple respiratory viruses. Doctors said that children are not immune to the infection of the deadly diseases either but what concerns them more is the practice of purchasing over-the-counter medicines and taking the issues of children lightly.

“Cases of respiratory problems in children have risen sharply in the last three weeks,” said Dr Ganesh Rai, former director at the Kanti Children Hospital. “Some children have been found to be suffering from pneumonia also.”

Pneumonia, an infection of lungs caused by various types of bacteria, viruses and fungi, is the number one killer of children under five in Nepal. It kills more children annually than malaria, tuberculosis and HIV combined.
Fifteen percent of the total under-five mortality is caused by pneumonia, according to the World Health Organisation.

Doctors say pneumonia caused by bacteria is deadlier than that caused by viruses, and children under five and people above 65 years of age are highly vulnerable to the disease.

Thousands of people throughout the country get infected from pneumonia every year. And the average cost of families for a case of hospitalisation is Rs13,250, nearly half the average Nepali household's monthly expenses, a study carried out by Pneumo Nepal shows.

The study—which was carried out at Patan Hospital, Kanti Children's Hospital, Mission Hospital in Palpa, Bheri Hospital in Nepalgunj and BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences—shows that the unexpected costs frequently push families into poverty.

“Two out of five of the poorest households experienced catastrophic expenses as a direct result of a child's pneumonia hospitalisation,” the report said.

Doctors say seasonal flu is also a respiratory virus which keeps mutating like coronavirus. The virus spreads in the same way the coronavirus does. But people do not take the issues seriously, which is problematic, doctors say.

“People first buy over-the-counter medicines such as paracetamol, cough syrup and others and wait several days hoping the ailment will get cured at home,” Rai said. “One should rush the children to hospital if the fever does not stop even after three days. Children could have suffered from pneumonia. Some of my patients are brought to me for examination only after they get serious.”

Doctors at the Kanti Children’s Hospital, the national referral centre for paediatric care, said the number of patients suffering from respiratory illness has risen significantly of late. They also said that the infection is not only limited to children; even their parents are often found sick.

“The number of patients suffering from common cold, fever, cough and respiratory illness is significantly high in our hospital,” said Dr Sumit Agrawal, spokesperson for the hospital. “We would like to ask parents to avoid crowds, maintain hand hygiene and follow public health measures, as they did during the coronavirus pandemic.”

Multiple doctors the Post talked to said that the number of people infected with seasonal influenza could be far more than what is recorded as not all cases reach hospitals and undergo testing. In some cases, even doctors do not think it necessary to carry out testing as there is no specific treatment for the infection.

The seasonal influenza virus causes respiratory complications, which affect the lungs. It spreads quickly in communities. It can cause fever, cough, body aches, occasional vomiting, diarrhoea and pneumonia.

Experts say early diagnosis is crucial to preventing infection. Patients recover early if treated on time. Experts also said that both the severity of the disease and deaths increase if seasonal influenza cases are not diagnosed on time.

Child health experts ask parents to administer influenza vaccines to their children if they can afford it. The vaccine lessens the risk of pneumonia infection, according to them. They also ask not to provide children with cough syrup purchased over the counter.

“We should not forget that,” Rai said, “scores of children died in several countries including Gambia and Indonesia due to the use of harmful cough syrups.”