Allergist Melissa Rathkopf, MD: It’s a really good question and one we’re getting a lot from parents lately, especially post COVID pandemic, is we’re seeing children diagnosed a lot with different viral illnesses. One is, I think we’ve made families a lot more aware of viruses and infection and two, we’ve increased testing, so before you may have been tested for flu but that would be it.
Now we test for flu, for COVID, for rhinovirus, enterovirus. So I think we’re making families more aware. They’re on heightened alert about these illnesses. When to really consider an immune evaluation, seeing an immunologist, would be for severe infections, especially recurrent severe infections.
So infections that are requiring antibiotics to clear. Ones that may require multiple courses or prolonged courses of antibiotics, especially ones that may require IV antibiotics or hospitalization. So frequent and severe infections or infections with unusual organisms. So if it’s an organism that your primary provider says, “Hm, I haven’t seen this before or heard of this,” it might be worth checking out.
And then if they’re associated with other concerns, such as joint swelling, rashes, recurrent fevers, it’s probably worth at least talking to your primary provider on whether referral to an immunologist may be indicated.
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Resource Type: Video | COVID-19, Flu, Immunology
