While Covid-19 cases in children are rising, doctors have asserted that there have been no cases of hospitalisation and infected children are responding to treatment.
Amid rising cases of Covid-19 in parts of the country, the virus is also infecting infants and children. Doctors say high fever and cough is being reported. A newer impact is also being observed with doctors seeing itchy eyes and conjunctivitis, which was “not seen in previous waves”, especially in India.
“There has been a sudden onset of acute febrile illness with positive RT-PCR for SARS-CoV2 among infants, aged 6-11 months. Most children presented with moderate fever, cold and mild cough with features of bronchitis. The one differentiating feature is conjunctivitis, not seen in previous waves, especially here," WHO`s Vaccine Safety Net member Dr Vipin M Vashishtha, was quoted as saying by IANS.
Covid-19 infections in children have been rare and mild in most cases since the start of the pandemic. However, severe multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS) was faced by some infected by the virus. In MIS, different body parts can become inflamed. This includes lungs, brain, heart, kidneys, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs.
Dr Vashishtha, who also serves as consultant paediatrician at the Mangla Hospital and Research Centre in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, said that the infection in children this time is not “MIS-C, which has rash and other features”.
Reports of Covid in children are increasing with cases coming in as “simple respiratory infections” later testing positive for the virus.
“The incidence of Covid among children is rising. They are being brought with simple respiratory infections and then testing positive for Covid," Dr Krishan Chugh, Director and head of the department of paediatrics at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, was quoted as saying by IANS. He added that school going children “are increasingly being affected with fever and throat pain” in the past two weeks. In most cases the infection is acquired by family members who are infected, he said.
While cases in children may be rising, doctors have asserted that there have been no cases of hospitalisation and infected children are responding to treatment.
(Inputs from IANS)
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