Canberra hospitals smashed with 'unprecedented combination of respiratory viruses'

COVID, influenza and RSV are spreading throughout the community and placing extraordinary demand on the health system.

Infectious diseases physician Kathryn Daveson, who is the medical director of quality, safety, innovation and improvement at Canberra Health Services, said this was the first time infections of the three viruses had peaked simultaneously.

"In both Canberra Health Services and across Australia we're seeing an unprecedented combination of respiratory viruses at the moment that are putting a lot of pressure on hospital admissions, particularly in the ACT," she said.

"We have this unusual situation where we have three main respiratory viruses and a smattering of others that cause diseases that could bring people into hospital.

"We've never quite been in the situation where all three have started to peak at once due to the fact that the other viruses weren't circulating as much when we're all at home in the COVID pandemic.

"So unwell people who need care, often need hospital admission and it's all coming together in a perfect storm at the moment to link a lot of the hospital admissions all at the same time."

Paediatric admissions in Canberra Health Services are "three times what we would normally expect this time of the year", chief executive Dave Peffer told a hearing last week.

These admissions are being driven by RSV infections. Dr Daveson said about one in two children who presented in the emergency department with RSV were admitted to hospital.

"Just under half of all the RSV in the hospital is in the paediatric population at the moment, whereas only 10 per cent of the COVID-19 cases are in paediatrics, so you can see how the different viruses impact different populations within the hospital," she said.

"The respiratory viruses in the paediatric population are being driven by RSV and that's the same every year."

RSV, respiratory syncytial virus, is an infection in the lungs and respiratory tract and can be severe for young children.

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Dr Daveson said it was difficult to say what virus was the most prevalent across the whole population given different testing rates. COVID has the highest testing rates whereas rates for flu and RSV are lower because most people assume their illness is a cold. But she said the majority of hospital admissions were for COVID and RSV.

"The actual documented numbers don't actually reflect the reality of what's going on in our community," she said.

"When people come in to hospital obviously we test for them and we're seeing that RSV and COVID-19 at the moment are making up the majority of the illnesses that need treatment in hospital."

Dr Daveson said, on Friday, there were 45 patients in Canberra hospitals with respiratory viruses. The latest COVID epidemiological report from ACT Health said there were 22 patients with COVID in the territory's hospitals as of 4pm last Thursday.

Authorities were notified of three COVID-related deaths last week but none of these occurred during the reporting period.

There was a COVID outbreak in a general medicine ward at Canberra Hospital earlier this month, which affected at least 22 patients. The outbreak, along with other COVID illnesses across the hospital, resulted in Canberra Health Services introducing its safety measures to help curb the spread of the virus.

The measures included wearing masks when visiting Canberra Health Services facilities and limiting the number of visitors to only two at a time.

These are considered to be an "orange" setting for the hospital. Dr Daveson said it was unlikely this would be escalated to a "red" setting.

"We're hoping to reserve red for any pandemics in the future so we are hoping to be at maximal intervention at the moment with orange status," she said.

"We've seen in the last couple of weeks through [the orange setting] that things have stabilised and we may be assisting in keeping respiratory viruses within our hospital somewhat under control.

"We probably still have a few weeks ahead to buckle down and keep doing what we're doing."

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