If elders at home are infected, maximum care should be taken to keep the children away from their contact said Dr. Sheila Iyer from SSG

The second wave of Coronavirus disease is creating havoc everywhere and the infection has been observed in infants and in children of 12-13 years of age. The infection is most often passed on to them by the adults. Cases have been reported in which a pregnant woman given birth to a corona positive baby.

Dr. Sheila said it’s important to take care of the children at home if they are infected. The effects of infection were more pronounced in children with anemia, malnutrition, and pneumonia. Some children even had blood transfusions. The relief was that 80 to 85 per cent of the infected children recovered from the home treatment.

A 10-bed Pediatric Covid Facility was set up in the Pediatric Department which proved to be very useful in intensive indoor treatment of over 23 infected children.

A total of 135 children were diagnosed in Covid OPD and out of which 71 tested negative while reports of 64 resulted in positive. 41 out of 64 positives were placed under home treatment as they had very mild symptoms. Dr. Sheila Iyer said that the remaining 23 children needed more intensive care and were admitted to their special unit because they had more symptoms and co-morbidities. Of the 23 children, 17 were suffering from malnutrition, low blood pressure, kidney tumors and liver diseases. During this period, 14 children with Multi-Inflammatory Material Syndrome of New Born were also treated in this department.

While 2 children lost to the battle, 21 others were sent back home after recovery.

She said children often had common symptoms such as colds, coughs and fevers, and home treatment became possible. Giving an example, she said that three children of Manoj Nagarsheth became infected with the virus and one and a half year old child had to be treated as an inpatient while two daughters recovered under home treatment.

Out of the 5 children who needed indoor treatment, they were newborns. Some of these people were infected from the womb while some were infected by the care taker and elders.

An infant or child patient cannot live in the hospital without parents or elders. With this in mind, the child treatment department provided accommodation to the patient child along with their parents or elders. For safety arrangements have been made to keep the child with the parent wearing PPE kit.