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The fact that the coronavirus does not only affect adults is known for a long time. However, it was only the extremely infectious mutations of SARS-CoV-2, such as Delta and Omikron, that revealed the scale of the problem of COVID-19 in children. And not only COVID-19, but also PIMS, i.e. complications after infection, with which more and more young patients come to hospitals all over Poland.
- Although infection with Omikron is usually mild, many children end up in hospitals for this reason
- There are several reasons for this. One of them is the fact that this variant ‘attacks’ mainly the upper respiratory tract, which in children are small and narrow, so they become blocked more quickly, making breathing difficult
- Children go to pediatric wards also because of PIMS – a multi-system inflammation in children, the symptoms of which may appear up to four weeks after infection.
- The stay in the hospital is sometimes prolonged because of the parents of children who become infected in the facility and have to undergo isolation there. Most of them are not vaccinated against COVID-19
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
We are at the center of the fifth wave of coronavirus infections. Although the Omicron that caused it is considered a mild COVID-19 variant, it does not mean that hospital wards are empty.
The situation, of course, is not as bad as at the beginning of December, when the daily number of people admitted to hospitals due to SARS-CoV-2 infection reached even 24. It is also not as bad as the statistics of new cases may indicate it (more than 20 hospitalizations at the end of last year occurred with 15-20 infections), which confirms that an infection with Omikron is less likely to end in hospitals. However, for several days the number of hospitalizations has clearly increased – from 13,7 thousand. January 20 to 17,6 thousand February 6.
- How long will the fifth wave in Poland last?
These numbers also include hospitalized children who are hospitalized more and more often due to coronavirus infection. There are several reasons for this.
The rest of the text is below the video.
Why Do Children Get COVID-19 More Than at the Start of the Pandemic?
First, children are more likely to suffer from COVID-19 symptomatically than at the beginning of the pandemic. In terms of diagnosis and the fight against the coronavirus, this may seem like a simplification, as a child with symptoms of infection can be more easily and quickly isolated from peers and adults, limiting the transmission of the virus. It is also easier to monitor its condition, being alert to the symptoms of multi-system childhood inflammation (so far many cases of PIMS have been detected late precisely because parents did not know that their child had COVID-19 and the virus was operating silently in his body. »).
Symptomatic or not, however, the infection is always alarming, especially in young children who cannot yet cope with persistent symptoms such as a stuffy nose, sore throat, cough and fever.
These COVID-19 symptoms are the second reason why there are more young patients in hospitals than before. Previously, dominant variants of the coronavirus “attacked” primarily the lower respiratory tract. In children, infections of this type often develop rapidly, and the virus can “descend” in just a few hours and affect, for example, the lungs. Young patients with pneumonia should be under constant medical supervision, and the youngest (under 2 years of age) are immediately referred to the hospital.
The omicron is usually located in the upper respiratory tract, but in the case of children, this place is also quite problematic. This is due to the fact that these roads are still very narrow and small, hence they block faster. Obstructed airways disrupt the breathing function, so children receive oxygen therapy in the hospital as well.
An interesting theory about the changes in the statistics of coronavirus infection in children was recently presented by scientists from the Quantitative Biosciences Institute at the University of California in San Francisco. They found a mutation in SARS-CoV-2 that weakens the innate immune system – the same that has been thought to effectively protect children from the severe course of COVID-19, and often the infection itself. When the presence of the mutation is combined with a large amount of the virus in the body (Omikron multiplies much faster and more efficiently than the previous variants), its infectivity and the aforementioned risk factors in children, it is no wonder that there are more and more patients in children’s wards.
A huge problem with vaccinating children
third the reason pediatric wards are full is because children are mostly unvaccinated. Those under 5 years of age They do not even have a chance of this protection yet, but the older ones are also largely unvaccinated. According to the data provided by the health ministry at the end of January, less than 10 percent took one dose. children under 12 years of age The virus “seeks” people who have no protection against it, children are “the perfect choice” for it.
The fact that in the face of such a large number of infections, children will fall ill with COVID-19, spoke in December in an interview with Medonet, pediatrician Lidia Stopyra, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Paediatrics at the Hospital. Żeromski in Krakow.
Virtually every child who is not immunized will become ill. In this epidemiological situation, there is no doubt about it. Most will get through this infection relatively mildly. Whether it will be my child – no parent can be so sure. If COVID-19 becomes more severe in the child, they will end up in a hospital, which is currently cramped, uncomfortable. At best, he or she will spend a few or several days in it.
The problem with the lack of vaccinations has one more face. These are the parents of hospitalized children who refuse to receive the vaccine, putting their children and other young patients and their carers at risk. This is a problem not only for covid wards, but also for all children’s wards, including oncology wards.
- Also read: Children also get COVID-19. Their parents don’t believe in vaccines
«Half of the parents of children with leukemia in one of the largest pediatric hospitals in Poland are unvaccinated. It is also a problem of other oncology centers for children »writes the TVN24.pl website, quoting prof. Anna Raciborska, head of the Department of Oncology and Oncological Surgery for Children and Adolescents at the Institute of Mother and Child in Warsaw. – If a parent is ill, there is no one to come with the child for treatment. An appeal for parents to vaccinate – said the doctor.
Isolation, faced by parents who contract the coronavirus from their child (or other patients, their parents or members of the ward staff), also extends the stay of a small patient in the hospital. – Sometimes the presence of an accompanying person prolongs isolation, because the child is already ending isolation, but the mother is not yet, so we have to wait for both of them to finish isolation, because no one will take them – said Dr. Ernest Kuchar, head of the Paediatrics Clinic with the Observation Department of the Medical University of Warsaw, who regrets the fact that specialists are unable to force parents to vaccinate themselves and not to put their children at risk.
- Check: How do I enroll a child aged 5–11 for the COVID-19 vaccination?
Children also suffer from long covid
PIMS and long covid in children are also still a big problem. Childhood multi-system inflammation occurs on average in one in a thousand young patients and is life-threatening. Its symptoms usually appear two to four weeks after the end of the acute phase of the infection. For this reason, children suffering from PIMS in hospitals, and those infected during the fourth wave (when Delta was dominant), “meet” those who became infected in the fifth wave (mostly Omikron).
The complications after infection, explained by the drug, are equally dangerous. Lidia Stopyra – they can take the form of weakness or poor exercise tolerance, but also changes in the lungs, neurological disorders or exacerbation of chronic diseases.
- How many children in Poland died from COVID-19? “It’s a lot”
Have you been infected with COVID-19 and are worried about the side effects? Check your health by completing a comprehensive research package for convalescents.
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