Strict lockdowns in New Zealand last year appear to have contributed to a recent outbreak in children of respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V., a highly contagious, flulike illness whose symptoms include a runny nose, coughing, sneezing and fever. Children in New Zealand were mostly stuck indoors amid lockdowns last autumn, which runs from March to May in the Southern Hemisphere. After the country reopened last winter, health officials say, few of them contracted seasonal viruses and infections, probably because they had been underexposed to germs. In a typical year, New Zealand sees a peak of cases of respiratory infections from June to September. This year, however, the same children have been more vulnerable than usual to those same ailments.

Source: New York Times July 11, 2021 13:31 UTC