AHMEDABAD: It’s been more than a year of trial now for the children who were first locked up inside homes during the lockdown and having to cope with online education in the first round of the Covid-19 induced pandemic, but situation turned a shade worse for them now.
Of the 20,162 Covid-19 cases registered in Surat city, 296 are of children between the age group of 0 and 10 years. This shows that the new strain in the second wave has made the young children, particularly infants, highly vulnerable to the deadly contagion. What’s more, the rate of fatality is also much higher among them as well as the need for oxygen or ventilator support.
In Surat alone, on average nine kids have been infected on a daily basis in the past one month. In Vadodara, around six kids test positive daily in the rapid test carried out at the outpatient department of the state-run SSG Hospital. The situation has been so alarming that private children’s hospitals in the city had to even create ICU beds for infants.
“Initially we created three beds for infants, but within a week we had to expand the facilities as more infants with severity were brought in,” said Dr Mohit Sahni, state president of National Neonatology Forum.
Vadodara has witnessed 661 Covid-19 cases in the age group of zero to 10 years, of which 580 have recovered. Yet, there are 81 active cases in this age group, as per Vadodara Municipal Corporation’s data.
“We had 16 patients who were treated at our
Covid facility for paediatric patients. Ten of them have recovered while six are undergoing treatment,” said Dr Sheila Aiyer, head of Department of Paediatrics at SSG Hospital, which was the first in the state to set up a dedicated emergency room for kids in March.
She confirmed that around six children test positive daily at OPD of the department. “Children are coming with bad pneumonia. As infection amongst adults is on the rise, we are getting more patients with each passing day,” said Aiyer.
Dr Rakesh Joshi, additional medical superintendent in Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, said that the positivity among the toddlers has increased manifold during the current wave. “It could well be attributed to the nature of the viral spread. This time we see many children whose parents or family members are infected first getting transmitted with the virus. Same with the newly-born whose mothers have got infected,” he said.
“In 40% of the cases, the toddlers are getting infected either from playing outside or being exposed to infection inddors. However, mortality has remained low compared to the general population,” Dr Joshi added.
At Ahmedabad civil hospital, about 12 paediatric patients are under treatment. The number in the first three months of 2021 had been hovering around one or two only.
Doctors have been observing that infants are showing more severity than older children. “Some serious cases of older cases have also been reported, but these are less than infants,” said Sahni. “We are surprised at the parameters of the infants,” he added. Doctors are also planning to get in touch with the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune to know more about the strain of the virus.
Last week, three infants had died during treatment for Covid-19 at different hospitals. Sahni said that the cause of death is renal failure or heart failure. “A few kids have been discharged and we may discharge three more in a couple of days,” Sahni said.
Secretary of Ahmedabad Academy of Paediatrics, Dr Manish Mehta said that diarrhoea has remained a very common symptom in recent times along with gastro-intestinal involvement.
Dr Pushkar Shrivastava, an Ahmedabad-based paediatrician said that the number of adolescents is slightly higher owing to their movement as well as insensitivity to safety rules. “Along with the symptomatic patients, we should also keep in mind that several kids also have post-Covid complications, commonly known as multi-system inflammatory syndrome which can happen for up to two months of recovery,” Dr Shrivastava said, adding that the common symptoms include reddening of eyes, lips or tongue along with lack of energy.
(With inputs from Prashant Rupera in Vadodara and Parth Shastri in Ahmedabad)