Lay summary
During winter 2020, at Middlemore Hospital, the number of under two-year-olds hospitalised with respiratory infections dropped by more than 80%. Similarly, Christchurch Hospital recorded ‘almost no cases of respiratory syncytial virus or influenza infections’ in babies and pre-schoolers. Commentators have suggested that a range of measures designed to suppress the transmission of SARS-CoV_2 in Aotearoa/NZ contributed to this phenomenon.
What might be the flow-on effect of a significant drop in respiratory infection rates in under twos during the 2020 lockdown for the number of children developing long-term respiratory conditions? What impact would one winter without exposure to respiratory infection requiring hospitalisation at a young age have on later respiratory health? We propose a literature review to assess the utility of a longitudinal study, drawing on the ‘natural experiment’ provided by the COVID-19 lockdown to investigate the impact of reduced or delayed respiratory infection rates in under twos on later respiratory health.