Noida hospitals treated over 200 children with Covid-19

NOIDA: Over 200 children have tested positive so far for Covid-19 in GB Nagar since the outbreak, and most were in the age group of 3 to 12 years, according to data collated from all three government Covid facilities — Child PGI, GIMS and Sharda, and two private hospitals Yatharth and Fortis — that are offering Covid care in the city.

Of those hospitalised at these facilities, one minor, who was just a few months old, succumbed to the infection. He had respiratory disorder and diarrhoea.
However, he was not a resident of the district.
While the youngest child to have tested positive was three days old, the oldest to get infected was 16.
Every child who tested positive got the infection from a family member who was already infected.
In case of children requiring ICU care, the duration of treatment ranged between a week and 10 days. “Usually, children with respiratory issues or diarrhoea were kept in ICU,” said a source from Child PGI. The rest were discharged between five days to a week. “The focus of treatment was routine, time-bound medication and regular monitoring and a good diet. Also, the children are stress-free compared to adults and recover faster,” said Dr Sunil Kumar, medical superintendent, Yatharth hospital which treated 24 minor Covid patients so far.
Dr Amit Vij, the head of paediatric ICU, Sharda hospital, an L3 Covid facility in Greater Noida, noted that none of the 58 children admitted to Sharda developed serious infections except an 11-month-old who suffered from bronchiolitis and was briefly in ICU. “That’s because lungs of children are not completely exposed to chronic pollution and they have better immunity than adults,” said Dr Vij.
At Child PGI in Sector 30, Noida, which has treated the highest number (103) of these children, most of the minor patients were asymptomatic. Around five had comorbid conditions like cancer, bronchial asthma and gastrointestinal problems. Till Thursday August 20, only 4 patients were hospitalised, mostly under the 10-day observation period before release.
The hospital also had four children who were less than a month old, including newborns, and 10 children who were less than a year old with the infection. Child PGI also treated one cancer patient who had tested positive for Covid. “The child has recovered from Covid-19 and will now continue with her cancer treatment,” said a source from the hospital.
Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS), an L2 Covid facility in Greater Noida, treated 49 children treated for Covid-19, and all of them have recovered. While most were asymptomatic, five had comorbid conditions like tuberculosis, febrile seizure (a convulsion in a child caused by a spike in body temperature), seizure disorder and bronchial asthma. “We undertook uniform evidence-based treatment protocol as per the severity of the disease followed by good nursing care and presence of caregivers and family,” said Brigadier Dr RK Gupta (retd), director, GIMS.
Even at Fortis in Sector 62, all the five minor Covid dpatients were in the mildly infected category.
In most of the cases, post discharge, the children sprung back to health after a week of rest that is recommended at the time of release. But some recovered children suffered an associated clinical syndrome known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) because of which the children had fever and vasculitis (an inflammation of the blood vessels). “This is noticed in children across the world and studies are under way to understand this post-Covid syndrome. But this is not to alarm anyone as after recovery, the body is tired and exhausted. Continued rest helps in complete recovery,” said Dr Vij.
Apart from treatment, these children were provided with free wifi by most of the hospitals so that they can attend online classes and keep themselves occupied. “The children did a lot of drawing, colouring as well as followed online classes,” said Dr Kumar from Yatharth hospital.