Rajkot: Infant dies as Covid infects 50% lungs

RAJKOT: A five-month-old baby boy, who had tested positive for Covid-19 few days back, died at the Rajkot civil hospital on Saturday morning. The death of the infant has again raised the spectre of children being worst hit in case the third wave of the coronavirus arrives.
An inquiry has been initiated as to how the child got infected when no one in their family or neighbourhood was infected. Doctors at the Rajkot civil hospital said that the child’s mother had tested positive four months ago and had fully recovered within a few days of getting infected. Doctors are not clear how the baby got infected.
The child was in Dhoraji when he was first admitted to a private hospital there a week ago with fever and cough. As the child's condition deteriorated he was shifted to a private hospital in Rajkot a couple of days back. Here his condition worsened as his oxygen level dipped drastically. The child was put on ventilator and tested for Covid-19. As the test result turned out to be positive, the child family members shifted him to KT Children Hospital on Thursday, which is part of Rajkot civil hospital.
Radheshyam Trivedi, medical superintendent of Rajkot civil hospital, said that the Covid-19 virus had badly infected the child’s lungs. “The child was on ventilator support when he was shifted to our hospital. His lungs were badly infected and we tried our best to save him,” Trivedi said. The child survived for 32 hours after he was brought to the civil hospital.
The pediatrician who was treating the infant initially informed that the baby was suffering from anaemia and his haemoglobin level had dipped to 5. The child’s immunity was weakened because of his anaemic condition, the pediatrician informed. Almost 50% of his lungs were infected because of Covid, he added.
At present, there are five patients undergoing Covid treatment at the Rajkot civil hospital with none of them being a pediatric patient. According to Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) total 42,807 people have tested positive for coronavirus since March 2020 in Rajkot city among whom 458 succumbed to the virus. There are currently 16 active cases in the city.
The medical fraternity is divided over the issue of the third wave of the coronavirus hitting children the most. Those who think that will be the case, give the high percentage vaccination among the adult population as one of the reasons.
The other reason given is that most of those who had tested positive in the second wave are less susceptible to get infected again. In the second wave, almost 62.50% cases were reported in the 21-50 years age group. The Covid positives from the 1-20 years age group made up for 11.60% of the total cases reported during the second wave. This figure includes the 3.05% cases that were reported in the 1-10 years age group.
To meet emergencies, the Gujarat government is setting up a control room and a dashboard exclusively for children to help parents navigate the pandemic — right from the availability of beds, Covid medicines and oxygen cylinders.