As the second wave of Covid-19 has started infecting more and more children, paediatricians at the government hospital are witnessing a new trend. Kids below the age of five with co-morbid conditions are getting infected from Covid-19 and requiring hospitalisations.
However, the silver lining is that infection in kids is not as rapid as in adults and an estimated 80% of them are getting managed through home isolation only.

“At this juncture, we are seeing more kids below the age of five who require paediatric admission. These include newborns, infants and toddlers with co-morbidities,” said Dr Sheila Aiyer, professor and head of Department of Paediatrics at SSG Hospital.

The department has had kids like three-and-a-half-year-old Purab Nishrata, who successfully recovered from Covid-19 even as he was suffering from Wilms’ tumour, a rare kidney cancer.

“We have a four-year-old kid suffering from cerebral palsy, another suffering from down syndrome – in short, those children who have development challenges. Similarly, we are getting kids suffering from severe acute malnutrition and tuberculosis of brain. All of them are under five years,” said Dr Aiyer.

Most of these children are believed to have got infected from close contacts – parents, neighbours or elders within the family.

“The newborns have definitely got infected from their adults. Like in adults, the underlying condition is that kids with co-morbidities are more vulnerable to get infected and their general condition can worsen,” she said.

Earlier, a majority of Covid-19 paediatric patients were limited to city areas. “Now, it is no longer an urban phenomenon. We are getting cases from Dahod, Limkheda, Panchmahals and Chhota Udepur apart from those in and around Vadodara,” she said.

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