Doctors have been urged not to recommend steam inhalation to treat children’s upper respiratory tract infections, with a surge in burns reported during the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK.

The Birmingham Children’s Hospital has seen a 30-fold increase in the number of children presenting with scalds from steam inhalation since March, write doctors from the hospital.

Their Burns Centre usually admits two children a year with these kinds of injuries, but over the last month alone, they have admitted six children with scalds, they report in the Lancet.

The doctors also surveyed other Burns Services across England, finding 50% of centres have had an increase in scalds relating to steam inhalation correlating to regions with a higher prevalence of COVID-19.