Triple the usual number of kids are coming to Ontario ERs with respiratory illnesses. Here's why

Respiratory illnesses are running rampant among children, resulting in hospital visits and admissions at far higher rates than normal for this time of year, according to fresh data from hospitals across Ontario. 

Similar surges are being reported at hospitals across Canada. Although no other province makes public as much data on respiratory illnesses, experts say Ontario's figures help give a clearer picture of the extent of the problem nationwide. 

The number of kids aged five to 17 who came to hospital emergency rooms with respiratory complaints over the past week was more than triple the seasonal average, according to Ontario's Acute Care Enhanced Surveillance (ACES) database. 

For kids up to four years old, daily ER visits for respiratory illnesses during the same period stood at more than double the usual number, ACES showed Wednesday. 

Combining the two age groups, it means some 2,160 children visited ERs for respiratory illnesses each day in the province over the past week, a time of year when that figure historically averages about 800. 

The trend is happening at comparable rates across all regions of Ontario and, in some cases, is putting hospitals under such pressure they've had to cancel surgeries or redirect patients.

Medical experts link the surge in illnesses among children to the withdrawal of preventive public health measures such as mask-wearing that had been in place since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Without distancing and mask mandates, children are getting exposed to more germs. And because of the public health measures, those germs are ones that kids' immune systems have had little recent exposure to, such as rhinovirus, enterovirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

It means viruses that typically give kids a common cold are instead driving an autumn surge of ER visits and hospitalizations. 

"Part of the complexity right now is there's just a lot more illness spread out of the changes in our public health mandates," said Dr. Charmaine van Schaik, a pediatrician and chief of staff at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ont. 

"At the same time, we've come through two years of relatively protected environments for young children, so their immunity isn't quite where it was." 

Another contributing factor cited by some doctors: lower-than-normal availability of children's acetaminophen and ibuprofen. The intermittent shortages of children's Tylenol and Advil mean that a greater number of parents are unable to control their kids' fevers at home, prompting more to make a trip to the ER. 

Dr. David Carr, an emergency physician who works in ERs in downtown Toronto and the suburban cities of Vaughan, Ont. and Richmond Hill, Ont., says he is seeing and admitting a disproportionate number of children. 

"This is something that I'm not used to," Carr said.