More children are affected by the second wave of COVID-19 infection. But fortunately, most of the children are recovering without much complication. Only a few children are requiring hospital admission and out of which only a few are requiring ICU admission. But as the no of infected children is high in the second wave, so no of serious illnesses in children will increase.
Last year, children were less affected, and in a lot less vulnerable state than this year. It has been seen that many children have taken ill in the second wave of the COVID-19 infection.
Young people had been relatively less affected by the pandemic during the first wave last year. In this wave young people have reported severe lung infections and “unpredictable” symptoms, doctors across the country.
The officials at the National Center for Disease Control suspect that several of the variants currently in circulation are more infections, infecting entire families, which could be one reason for the spike in cases in young people.
However, many of them have been reporting ‘ground-glass opacity’ in their lungs, which is a condition where the appearance of the lung changes because of the infection.
Can we prevent disease progression?
Dr. Chandrashekar Singha Senior consultant, in charge, Pediatric Critical Care, Rainbow Children’s Hospital, Malviya Nager, New Delhi said, “COVID-19 in children presented with fever, headache, body ache, vomiting loose watery stool. Once your child diagnoses to have covid positive and symptomatic, discussed with your pediatrician before giving medication. Only covid positive do not require any treatment.”
Following are the alarming symptoms of COVID 19 children, need urgent attention
- If high-grade fever persists for more than 5 days.
- Difficulty in breathing and feeling chest tightness.
- Swelling of hands and feet
- Developed skin rashes
- Excessive sleepiness
- Poor urine output
Avoid crowded places, keep appropriate distance, hand washing and mask in older kids more than 5 years when they go outside of the home. Encourage to have fresh fruits and vegetables to boost immunity. There is no real medicine to boost immunity except good nutrition.
