Seema Lakdawala is all set to start her small daycare. He found the perfect spot and filled it with toys. There’s food, stuffed animals, balls, and even an air purifier. It also has a sizable cage and several cameras that record the whole thing. In the spring of 2022, it opened in Pittsburgh, USA, and welcomed its first participants: four healthy ferrets and one with the flu.
Lakdawala, a virologist at Emory University (although the work was done in Pittsburgh), wanted to study how the influenza virus spreads through nurseries, one of its most fertile habitats. “Ferrets have been the standard for studying influenza viruses,” he explained during a video conference, “because their respiratory systems are so similar to ours.” But until now, experiments have been conducted in overly controlled environments. Pairs of animals are kept in small cages for several days. This is not how animals become infected in the wild, nor is it how outbreaks occur among preschool children.
Lakdawala formed an interdisciplinary team with another virologist, two aerosol transmission experts trained in studying real day care centers, and a mathematician. Together they tried to replicate an environment that would be more comfortable for ferrets and familiar to anyone with young children. They gather the animals for hours every day in this common space filled with toys. They gave them drinks and offered them snacks. Afterwards, each ferret rested in its own cage.
Once they put the animals together, they realized that not only did their respiratory tracts resemble ours, but their behavior also resembled ours. “They are very sociable animals,” the virologist said. “They run, they play. They chew on toys, explore spaces, and have brief but intense interactions with each other. I have young children, and… well, the truth is, it reminds me a lot of what they do,” he admits with a smile .
Over the next few months, Lakdawala and his colleagues watched several groups of ferrets play indoors. kindergarten When they spread the virus to each other. The scientists carefully recorded their movements. They marked the patient’s contaminated surfaces and recorded the next person who touched them. They noticed fights and games. Who got sick and when. Their first findings, which will be published in a scientific journal in a few months, come with some surprises.
“For example, we want to understand how ventilation affects contagion,” the virologist said. “We tried normal air exchange, once an hour, similar to nurseries around here. Then, 23 exchanges an hour.” The results were the same: In both cases, 50 percent of the ferrets ended up infected. . The difference is the moment they were infected. “Those with reduced ventilation became sick very quickly within three days. “Those with better ventilation also became infected, but it took three to seven days. ” Therefore, in this particular environment, increased ventilation may only have the effect of delaying infection.
Another time, a sick ferret was playing with four other healthy ferrets, but the fifth animal stayed away. He was the first to get sick. It may seem counterintuitive, but after looking at the cameras, the scientists saw how sick ferrets bit and sucked on objects and surfaces that the first infected ferret then bit and sucked again, as if the first infected person had left A trail of viral breadcrumbs for a second infected person to pick up. stand up..
Ferrets tend to push their faces together, steal food, chew toys or bite each other. This behavior is common in childcare centers but not in places like bars or offices. Therefore, Lakdawala and his team’s experiments make sense in this context. There are many ways the flu virus can be spread, all of which occur in daycare centers, whether it’s ferrets or children.
Immune system under construction
Margarita del Val, a virologist at the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology, confirmed in a phone conversation that “saliva is one of the fundamental routes of transmission in day care centers” and stressed that in adult settings saliva is not so important. “That’s why surface cleaning is important in this environment.” Overall, Del Val recommends putting everything we’ve learned during the pandemic into practice. Ventilation, cleaning, masks when they’re old enough… “The coronavirus brings to the fore the transmission pathways of all respiratory pathogens,” he noted. “This applies to influenza, bronchiolitis and other respiratory borne viruses and bacteria.”
Pandemic comparisons make sense in this environment. “With COVID-19, we are facing a new virus for the first time in our lives. This is what happens every day to children in day care centers, who are exposed for the first time in their lives to viruses, bacteria or infections that they have never fought against .” said Del Val, CSIC Platform Coordinator for Global Health.
According to a study by the Spanish Society of Primary Care Pediatrics, 30%-50% of infections in young children may be related to day care centers, with this number generally declining after the first year. Pediatrician Pedro Gorrotxategi, vice-president of the association, believes that infections “are inevitable, but we should not give up on ourselves either.”
Most babies in day care get 8 to 15 colds per year, which is more than they would if they were cared for alone at home. But after the first year, the number of respiratory illnesses decreases. Furthermore, there is reason to think that these initial episodes may have a protective effect in the future.
In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, A team of researchers in the Netherlands followed a group of children for the first six years of their lives to see how often they developed acute gastroenteritis. Of a total of 2,220 children studied, 1,344 attended day care centers in their first year of life. These children had more episodes of gastroenteritis initially, but those who didn’t had it more often as adults. By age six, the average number of episodes of gastroenteritis was similar in both groups. But these studies shouldn’t mislead parents, explains Dr. Golotsatgyi: “People think it’s better to keep kids exposed. After all, sooner or later it’s going to get bad. But that’s okay, it’s better to delay it. Our immune system at four years old More developed than when they were two years old.”
The daycare virus is starting to brew in the office. Parents’ working conditions can affect children’s illnesses and the circumstances under which children are taken to day care. Ideally, a child should stay home when he or she shows the first symptoms of illness. “But health advice is one thing, real life is another,” admits Dr. Gorrotxategi. “We know that many parents, when they learn that their child is half-bad, try to stretch to see if he can make it to pick him up after work. The first year of kindergarten is complicated.” In this sense , teleworking or measures such as the new family law (which provides for five days of care for dependents) can help cope. Vaccination is also an important weapon, all experts consulted pointed out. And patience.
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