Over 75 per cent children in Karnataka had got or were exposed to Covid

BENGALURU: A health department survey has revealed that over 75 per cent of children surveyed had been exposed to or infected with Covid-19 previously, showing how vulnerable the very young were to the virus. The department released the much-awaited report of the Covid-19 paediatric sero survey, ‘Assessing the burden of Covid-19 in children aged 6 to 14 years in Karnataka, a cross-sectional survey’. It was conducted by the State Surveillance Unit of the department from June 6 to 14, based on recommendations of the Covid Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).

An IGG (Immunoglobin G -- a type of antibody which indicates previous infection or vaccination) test conducted on 5,358 non-vaccinated children has indicated that 75.38 per cent of children were exposed to or infected with the Covid-19 virus earlier. The exposure/infection rate among girls was 77.83 per cent while it was 73.02 per cent among boys.

During the study period, only 13.23 per cent (709) of the children were symptomatic. Among 5,278 valid samples, only two were positive for RT-PCR -- one symptomatic case in Udupi and one asymptomatic case in Chitradurga. During genomic sequencing among children positive for RT-PCR, the Omicron sub-lineage variant BA.5 was found in symptomatic, and BA2.10 was found among the asymptomatic.

Among 584 symptomatic but Covid-negative children sent for an ILI panel of tests (Influenza A, Influenza B, H1N1, H3N2, RSVA and RSVB) to know the incidence of other influenza infections, as many as 32 (6.44 per cent) were found positive for Influenza A, H1N1 and one (0.2 per cent) was found positive for Influenza B.

The study was conducted at 232 health facilities in 38 units across the state, including BBMP. It was done among 5,358 non-vaccinated children (50.9 per cent boys and 49.1 per cent girls) including 31 per cent aged 6-8 years, 35.8 per cent aged 9-11 years and 33.2 per cent aged 12-14 years; 33.3 per cent were from urban slums, 38.3 per cent from rural areas and others from urban non-slums. In all, 93.5 per cent were schoolchildren.